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(Benerat  (Bbitor: 
WILLIAM   BRIGGS,   LL.D.,    D.C.L.,    M.A.,    B.Sc, 

PkINCIPAI.   of   UnIVRRSITV   C"<»KH».«I'0NI>K.N«  K  CoLIKdE. 


h 


BACON 


ESSAYS    L-XX. 


THE    U2iv^SITy    rr-TORIAL   SERIES. 


lEmlieb  (rint3Ciic9, 


Bacon's  Essays,  I. -XX.     By  A.  F.  Wait,  M.A.     Is.  Od. 

Chaucer. -Canterbury   Tales.      By   A.   .1.    Wyvtt     M  \      With 

(Jh^sary.     Prologue^     !>^Kiiight's  Tale,  Nuns  Priest's  Tale. 

Man  of  Law  s  Tale,  Squire  s  Tale,  l-^acli  witli  Prologue,  2h.  Od. 
Dryden.  ^Essay  of  Dramatic  Poesy.  By  \V.  H.  Low,  M.A.  Ss.  Txl 
Dryden^^  Defence  of  the  Essay  of  Dramatic  Poesy.     Preface  to  the 

Fables.     By  Al.LEX  Mawfij,  M.A.      U.  iUl  emh. 
Johnson.^^  A  Journey  to  the  Western  Islands  of  Scotland.    By  E.  J. 

Johnson.  -Life  of  Milton.     By  S,  E.  (Jocjgi.v,  M.A.     Is.  (kl. 
Langland. -Piers  Plowman.     Prologue  and  Voshmb  L-VII.,  Text  B. 
By  J.  h.  Davis,  D.Lil.,  M.A.     4s,  M. 

Milton. -Early  Poems,  Comus,  Lycidas.     By  S.  E.  (lorjoiN,  M.A., 
aiHlA.  1^  W.vrr,  M.A.     •_>-..  (>,i.     Areopagitica.     Is.  Od. 

Milton. -Paradise  Lost,  Books  L,  II.     By  A.  E.  Watt,  M.A.  is.  6d 
Books  IV.,  V.     r.y  S.  JC.  (Jotit^iN,  M.A.     Ls.  6d. 

MUton.  -Paradise  Regained.     By  A.  J.  Wvatt,  M.A.     28.  (id. 

Milton.— Samson  Agonistes.     By  A.  J.  Wvatt,  M.A.    2s.  6d. 

Milton. -Sonnets.     By  W.  E.  Masom,  M.A.     Is,  f>d.         '      .* 

More. -Utopia.     By  R.  R.  RusK,  Ph.D.     2s. 

Pope.     Rape  of  the  Lock.     By  A.  E.  Wait,  M.A.     Is.  «d. 

Shakespeare.     By  Prof.  W.  J.  RuLu:,  D.Litt,     In  40  volumes. 

2s.  a  Volume, 

'  Midsummer      Night's 
j      Dream 


As  Tou  Like  It 
King  Jobu 


Much  Aio  About  Notbuif 
Tempest 


AUa  WeU  that  Ends  Well 

Antony  and  Cleopscrs 

Comedy  of  Errors 

Coriolaaut 

Cymbeline 

Hamlet 

Henry  IV.    Part  I. 

Henry  IV.    Part  II. 

Henry  V. 

Henry  VI.  FarU  I. -III. 

Henry  VIIL 


2s,  C)d.  a  Volume, 
Julius  Caesar 
King  Lear 
Love's  I.abour's  Lost 
Macbeth 

Measure  for  Measure 
Merchant  of  Venioe 
Merry  Wive«  of  Windsor 
Othello 
Pericles 
Richaid  II. 
Riohard  III. 


Romeo  and  Juliet 
Sonnets 

The  Taming  of  the  Shrew 
The  Two  Noble  Kinsmee 
Timon  of  Athens 
Titus  Andronicus 
Troiius  and  Creasida 
Twelfth  Night 
TwoOentlenien  of  Verona 
Venus  and  Adonis 
Winter'e  Tale 


Shakespeare.  Midsummer  Night's  Dream.  Richard  II.  By  A.  E 
Wah',  M.A.  Hamlet.  Merchant  of  Venice.  By  S  E 
(io(;<;iN,  M.A.    Tempest.    By  A.  U.  WKEKt;«,  B.A.    28.  ^ch! 

Shakespeare.-Henry  VUI.     liy  W.  H.  Low,  M.A.    28. 

Spenser. -Faerie  Queene,  Book  I.    I5y  W.  H,  Hill,  M.A.    23.  6d. 


Z\)C  Tllnivcreitv^  G^utorial   Scries, 


BACON 


»»% 


ESSAYS  I.-XX 


EDITED    BY 


A.   F.   WATT,   M.A.  Oxon., 

KDITOR   OF   SHAKESPKARR's   "RICHARD   11."  AND   "  MIDSmiMER  NICHTS 
DRKAM,  "    MILTON  S   "  PAKADLSE   LOST,    1.    AND  II.,"   ETC. 


WITH  AX  INTRODUCTION  BY 
R.    R.    RUSK,   Ph.D.,   M.A., 

KDITOR  OF   MORES   "  UTOI'lA." 


Second  Edition* 


London:  W.  B.  CLIVE, 

(Untt>er6itj   ^utortaf  (press   &?. 

157  Deury  Lane,  W.C. 


tff] 


^li^^x'  4r.jr»<iis:'%i.-'.*  - 


as."i  ^   .J7." 


1-^ 


n 


CONTENTS. 


CHROXOLOiiicAi.  Tablk  OF  Bacon's  Chief  Works 

iNTUOUrcTKtN' 

1 .  Life  <jf  l^oon 

2.  l^con's  PhilosopliV     . 
X  Uaoon's  Philosophy  (»f  Life 

4.  The  Essays 

5.  Bacon's  Style 

Essays 

l^edication  . 
.(jJoTTiutli 
ii.  Of  Dentil     . 
iii.  Of  Unity  in  Religion 
iv.  Of  Revenge 
»(^  Of  Adversity 
vi.  Of  Siniuhition  and  Dissiniuklion 
vii.  Of  Parents  and  Children     . 
lAiii.  Of  Marriage  and  Single  Life 
V  ix.  Of  Envy      .         .         .         • 
X.  Of  Love        .         .         .         • 
Xxi.  Of  (Jreat  Place    . 
xii.  Of  B<^Udness 

xiii.  Of  Goodness,  and  Goodness  of  Natur 
xiv.  Of  Nohility 
XV.  Of  Seditions  and  Troubles  . 
xvi.  Of  Atheism. 
xvii.  Of  Superstition   . 
,  xviii.    Of  Travel    .         .         •         < 
«    xix.  Of  Empire  . 
XX.  Of  Counsel  . 

XOTKB     .  .  •  •  • 


re 


PAOK 

vii 

1 
4 
9 
9 

11 

13 
1+ 
16 
18 
22 
•23 
24 

27 
29 


40 
42 
44 
46 
52 
.'>5 
56 
59 
63 

68 


iiifi"'  '"""""  ""'" ^  "    '"^iiiiniii' '''     ""Till   T 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE  OF  BACON'S 

CHIEF    WORKS. 


--.■».,' 


'•I 


r\ 


ii 


'"'  '5%^c 


First  Eklitiun  of  Enmyi*  (10) ;  published  1597.      ^■^ 
Advanc€ineiU  of  Leaiviiiig,  Book  I.,  1603  ;  published  1605. 
Advancement  of  Ltarningf  Book  II.,  1605  ;  published  1605. 
h>econd  Edition  of  Emat/^  (38),  1607-1612  ;  published  1612. 
XewAflaiUix,  1614-1617;  published  1627. 
Xovutn  Orijanum,  16()8-1620;  published  16-20. 
IliMory  f]f  Henry  VII.,  1621-1622;  published  1622. 
De  Augmenti8  Scientiarum,  16>2-1623  ;  pubUshed  1623. 
Thii-d  Edition  of  Ettsaytt  (58),  1612-1624  ;  published  1625. 


jiri  Jilji 


-  fi.v ;    -  »•>  .  ■"-;-■ 


:.^«iiiiillSisii€J*s: 


■^'^VV^I 


INTRODUCTION. 


'II 


'I 


§  1.  Life  of  Bacon. —  Francis  Bacon  was  born  on 
2*2nd  January,  1561,  at  York  House,  in  the  Strand,  London. 
His  father  was  Sir  Nicholas  Bacon,  Lord  Keeper  of  the 
Great  Seal  under  Queen  Elizabeth,  and  his  mother  was 
Anne,  one  of  the  daughters  of  Sir  Anthony  Cook. 

As  a  youth  he  was  precociously  solemn,  and  Queen 
Elizal)eth  called  him  "The  Young  Lord  Keeper."  It  is 
related  that  being  asked  on  one  occasion  by  the  queen  how 
old  he  was,  he  answered,  "  Two  years  younger  than  your 
Majesty's  happy  reign.*'  He  was  sent  in  April  1573  to 
Tnnity  College,  Caml^ridge,  where  he  remained  till  Christ- 
mas 1575,  being  then  on  the  point  of  sixteen.  At  the 
university  he  took  a  dishke  to  the  philosophy  of  Aristotle, 
"  not  for  the  worthlessness  of  the  author,"  as  he  said,  '*  but 
for  the  unfruitfulness  of  the  way ;  being  a  philosophy  only 
strong  for  disputations  and  contentions,  but  barren  of  the 
productions  of  works  for  the  l)enefit  of  the  life  of  man." 
This  opinion  he  never  altered  and  it  determined  his  later 
philosophical  position. 

After  being  admitted  to  the  Society  of  Gray's  Inn  in 
June  1576  he  was  sent  in  September  to  France  "  to  mould 
him  to  the  arts  of  state."  There  he  remained  till  his 
father's  death  in  1579,  when  he  returned  to  England  and 
commenced  his  regular  career  as  a  student  of  law.  He 
became  ** utter  barrister"  in  1582,  l>encher  in  1586, 
i<  iider  in  1588,  and  double  reader  in  1600. 

He  entered  Parliament  in  1584  and  sat  in  every  Parlia- 
ment up  to  the  time  of  his  fall.  Of  his  eloquence  his 
friend  Ben  Jonson  bears  testimony  :  **  No  man  ever  spake 
more  neatly,  more  pressedly,  more  weightily,  or  suffered 
less   emptiness,   less   idleness   in  what   he  uttered.      No 

J&4.  J'iO.  A 


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rj,-  v^.-3 :7.'i:f^A:.vA'Tvsr„trr'?;ri:-.f!'  "-JS^Vy^'-f^f^-^W^  ..,« 


2  INTRODXrCTION. 

member  of  his  speech  but  consisted  of  its  own  graces.  His 
hearers  could  not  cough  or  look  aside  from  him  without 
loss.  He  commanded  where  he  spoke ;  and  had  his  judges 
angry  and  pleiised  at  his  devotion.  No  man  had  their 
affections  more  in  his  power.  The  fear  of  every  man  that 
heard  him  was  that  he  should  make  an  end." 

In  16i)iy  Bacon  married  Alice  Barnham,  an  alderman's 
daughter,  who  brought  him  a  moderate  fortune.  His 
marriage  was  celebrated  with  great  pomp.  A  contemporary 
accoimt  says  that  Bacon  '*  was  clad  from  top  to  toe  in 
purple,  and  hath  made  himself  and  his  wife  such  store  of 
fine  raiments  of  cloth  of  silver  and  gold  that  it  dmws  de<?p 
into  her  portion/'  an  indication  of  the  love  of  magnificence 
which  characterised  his  domestic  life.  According  io  Dr. 
Rawley,  Bacon's  chaplain  and  first  biographer,  his  married 
life  w^as  one  of  **  much  conjugal  love  and  respect,"  l)ut  the 
munificent  provision  which  Bacon  in  his  will  made  for  his 
wife  he  revoked  by  a  codicil  **  for  just  and  grave  causes," 
the  nature  of  which  was  not  sj^ecified. 

Bacon's  political  career  l)elongs  to  history  i*ather  than  to 
literature.  Under  Elizabeth  he  obtained  no  a<lvancement, 
owing  partly  to  the  opposition  of  his  own  relatives,  the 
Cecils,  and  partly  to  the  fact  that  he  had  offended  the 
Queen  in  Parliament  by  vigorously  opposing  a  demand  for 
a  large  subsidy.  Even  the  influence  of  the  Earl  of  Essex 
at  a  time  when  that  ill-fated  nobleman  was  in  high  favovu* 
with  Elizal)eth  was  iusufticient  to  obtain  for  Bacon  the 
promotion  which  he  desired ;  nor  could  his  subsequent 
conduct  towards  his  munificent  friend  and  patron,  conduct 
which  has  stamped  liis  name  with  undying  infamy,  and  his 
general  subservience  to  the  Court  win  for  him  the  good 
graces  of  the  Queen. 

When  James  I.  came  to  the  throne  Bacon's  prospects 
improved,  and  his  advancement  was  fairly  rapid.  In  1607 
he  became  Solicitor-General,  and  in  1613  Attorney-General ; 
he  was  made  Lord  Chancellor  in  1617,  and  in  1618  was 
raised  to  the  peerage  as  Baron  Verulam.  This  reads  like 
success,  but  his  life  was  a  long  succession  of  hopes  deferred, 
of  whining  appeals  for  office  and  a  cringing  after  favours 
which  came  too  late  to  be  enjoyed.    Finally  fate  raised  him, 


INTRODUCTION. 


3 


'^ 


% 


1i 


'I 


'i 


^ 


f 


like  so  many  others  of  his  time,  to  high  place  only  to  make 
his  disgrace  the  deeper. 

The  story  of  his  fall  has  often  b^n  told,  but  his  own 
comments  on  the  subject  have  never  been  l)ettered.  He 
preached  a  higher  morality  than  he  practised  :  it  was  not 
ignorance  but  weakness  of  will  that  caused  his  undoing. 
In  1612  in  his  Essay  on  Great  Place  he  wrote:  **  Do  not 
only  l)ind  thine  own  hands  and  thv  servants'  from  takiucr, 
but  bind  the  hands  of  suitors  also  from  offering.  And 
avoid  not  only  the  fault  but  the  suspicion  of  corruption." 
In  the  New  Atlantis  he  remarks  that  for  a  public  servant 
to  receive  a  present  was  to  \ye  **  twice  paid."  Nevertheless 
he  was  not  Ux>  careful  in  accepting  presents  from  litigants 
when  their  case  was  still  in  process;  he  even  borrowed 
money  from  suitors  and  was  culpably  negligent  in  allowing 
his  servants  to  take  presents.  During  his  Chancellorship, 
1617-16*21,  he  had  also  received  and  acted  upon  letters 
from  Buckingham  asking  him  to  favour  certain  suitors. 
These  would  not  have  l)een  sent  to  a  man  above  suspicion, 
"  a  man  of  courage,  fearing  God  and  hating  covet ousness," 
as  he  maintained  a  judge  should  Ix*. 

He  excuseil  himself  bv  saving  that  these  things  were 
vitia  temporis  and  not  vitia  hominis,  but  we  like  to  think 
of  Bacon  as  something  mon>  than  a  man  of  his  times,  as 
rather  a  man  of  all  time. 

To  the  charges  against  him  Bacon  made  no  legal 
defence,  and  on  May  3rd,  1621,  the  famous  judgment  was 
pa«seil : — This  High  Court  doth  adjudge: 

(1)  That  the  Lord  Viscount  St.  Albans,  Lord  Chan- 
cellor of  England,  shall  undergo  fine  and  ransom  of  forty 
thousand  pounds. 

(2)  That  he  shall  be  imprisoned  in  the  Tower  during 
the  King's  pleasure. 

(3)  That  he  shall  l)e  for  ever  incapable  of  an  ofiice, 
place  or  employment  in  the  State  or  Commonwealth. 

(4)  That  he  shall  never  sit  in  Parliament,  nor  come 
within  the  verge  of  the  Court. 

After  a  few  days'  imprisonment  in  the  Tower  he  was 
released  and  his  fine  was  also  remitted.  His  exclusion 
from  the  Court  was  later  revoked  and  the  only  part  of  the 


#< 


.-.<: 


^^k^^^ 


4  INTRODUCTION. 

sentence  which  remained  in  force  was  the  prohibition  from 
attending  Parliament.  This  he  tried  in  vain  to  liave 
cancelled. 

He  admitted  the  justice  of  his  sentence  and  said  that  he 
would  rather  l^e  a  briber  than  a  defender  of  l)ril)es.  *'  I 
was,"  he  says,  **  the  justest  judge  that  was  in  England 
these  fifty  years.  But  it  was  the  justest  censure  in 
Parliament  that  was  these  two  hundred  yeai-s."  He  like- 
wise recognised  that  his  punishment  was  in  the  interests 
of  justice  and  took  '*  no  small  comfort,  in  the  thought  that, 
hereafter,  the  greatness  of  a  judge  or  magistmte  shall  be 
no  sanctuary  of  guiltiness,  which  in  few  words  is  the 
beginning  of  a  golden  world." 

In  his  retirement  he  never  gave  up  hope  of  re-entering 
public  life.  He  was  **  impatient  of  privateness,  even  in 
age  and  sickness  "  :  as  a  moth  to  the  light  he  sought  to 
retiuTi  to  the  source  of  liis  suffering,  but  his  appeals  for 
office  were  always  ignored. 

His  retirement  nevertheless  enabled  him  to  make  his 
literary  reputation  more  secure.  Like  8ir  Walter  Scott 
in  somewhat  similar  circumstances  he  devoted  himself 
with  amazing  energy  to  literature  and  science,  and  during 
this  period  produced  his  Histories,  the  De  Amjmeniis,  the 
New  Atlantis,  and  the  Third  Edition  of  the  Esmys.  The 
Advavcement  of  Learning,  the  Novum  Oryanum,  and  the 
First  and  Second  Edition  of  the  Essays  belong  to  the 
previous  period. 

An  experiment  which  was  an  anticipation  of  the  modem 
process  of  refrigeration  caused  his  death.  Travelling  to 
Highgat>e  one  April  day  he  stopped  on  the  way,  purchased 
a  hen,  killed  and  with  his  own  hands  stuffed  it  with  snow 
to  test  the  power  of  cold  to  arrest  putrefaction.  As  a 
result  he  caught  a  chill  and  was  taken  to  the  house  of  the 
Earl  of  Arundel,  where  on  April  9th,  1626,  he  died  of 
broiK^hitis. 

§  2.  Bacons  Philosophy. — With  all  his  faihngs,  Bacon 
was  the  herald  of  a  new  age.  When  others  were  looking 
back  with  regret  to  the  past,  trying  t<i  catch  the  last  linger- 
ing rays  of  the  setting  sun  of  knowledge,  ho  was  proclaiming 


INTRODUCTION. 


5 


n 


the  coming  of  a  new  and  still  more  glorious  da^NTi.  Man's 
heaven  was  no  longer  to  be  sought  in  the  past,  but  in  the 
future.  To  apply  Plato's  analogy,  of  wh'ich  Bacon  made  so 
much  use,  he  turned  the  eyes*  of  the  intellectual  cave- 
dwellers  to  the  light. 

By  his  criticism  he  made  the  systems  of  the  past  unten- 
;d>le — '*  Let  the  dea<l  bury  their  dead  "  was  the  burden  of 
his  plaint— and  by  giving  expression  to  the  thoughts  which 
were  vaguely  stirring  the  human  heart  he  did  more  than 
any  other  to  secure  the  success  of  the  new  movement  in 
knowledge.  But  his  rea<jh  greatly  exceeded  his  grasp  :  his 
philosophical  works  were  great  introductions  rather  than 
completed  systems.  His  zeal  as  a  reformer  and  prophet 
even  blinded  him  to  many  of  the  actual  advances  in  science 
'f  his  day.  He  j)ointed  out  the  path  rather  than  travelled 
It  liimself :  *•  he  moved  the  intellects  that  moved  the  world." 
As  he  said :  "  I  liave  only  taken  upon  me  to  ring  a  bell  to 
call  other  wits  together,"  or,  to  borrow  another  of  his 
inusical  metaphors — "  so  have  I  been  content  to  tune  the 
instnmients  of  the  muses  that  they  may  play  that  have 
better  hands." 

Bacon's  first  task  was  to  overthrow  the  philosophy  which 
then  prevailed,  and  which  is  known  by  the  name  of  scholas- 
ticism. According  to  this  system  of  philosophy  which 
prevailed  from  the  eleventh  to  the  fifteenth  century,  truth 
was  supposed  to  he  already  attained  and  fully  set  forth  in 
the  Scriptures  and  in  the  decrees  of  the  Church  councils. 
Scholasticism  accepted  such  theological  truths  and  sought 
by  means  of  deductive  logic  to  reconcile  and  systematise 
them  and  give  them  scientific  form.  It  aimed  at  the  com- 
plete reduction  of  religious  thought  to  logical  form. 

It  did  not,  however,  regard  knowledge  as  a  progressive 
fact,  nor  did  it  seek  new  truth  by  return  to  experience. 
The  hand  of  authority  was  heavy  upon  the  age,  and  so  the 
assumptions  on  which  the  system  of  scholasticism  was 
based  remained  unquestioned.  Its  argumentation  was  con- 
sequently always  in  a  circle  and  its  discussions  possessed  no 
reality.  Bacon  complained  that  it  merely  brought  forth 
'*  cobwebs  of  learning,  admirable  for  their  fineness  of  thread 
and  work,  but  of  no  substiince  or  profit." 


i>a^£y^ftiiiii^a^Ai>a!B^MawL^rf*a 


,jL%!!^i;? 


as?^^- 


i^iaifite-';^^fejaaifeifca£^\;;>.v  :-^isk^iiA^i}^i:^  r.eys»uj^'^s 


-l^'lfc  '"t*  •■*% 


6 


INTRODUCTION. 


It  was  Bacon's  object  to  briiij?  thoiij^bt  anew  into  fruit- 
ful relation  with  concrete  experience.  To  attain  this  end 
was  no  easy  task  :  the  judgment  of  Time,  a  s[>ecious  form 
of  the  lazy  fallacy,  was  the  final  wonl  in  all  arj^uments,  and 
this  Bacon  set  himself  to  refuto.  Thus  he  was  led  to  an 
utter  rejwtion  of  the  wisdom  of  tlie  ancients.  Many  of  his 
opinions,  indt^nl,  ori^nated  in  a  reaction  a^^ainst  existing 
en*ors ;  and  when  the  errors  which  he  attiU'ked  passed 
awav,  his  views  in  their  turn  became  errors. 

He  inverts  the  ordinary  view  with  re«;ard  to  history. 
**  These  times,"  he  says,  meaning  the  times  in  which  he 
lived,  "  are  the  ancient  times,  when  the  world  is  ancient, 
and  not  those  which  we  account  ancient  by  a  computation 
backward  from  ourselves  ' ;  and  he  concludes  therefrom, 
"that  wisdom  which  we  have  derived  principally  frcmi  the 
Greeks  is  but  like  the  boyho4.)d  of  knowledge  and  has  the 
characteristic  property  of  boys :  it  can  talk  but  it  cannot 
generate;  for  it  is  fruitful  of  controversies  but  barren  of 
works."  The  same  cause  also  leads  him  to  take  a  very 
pessimibiic  view  of  human  progress.  **  Time,'"  he  says,  '*  is 
like  a  river  which  has  l)rought  down  to  us  things  light  and 
puffed  up,  while  those  which  are  weighty  and  solid  have 
sunk." 

Bacon  would  establish  a  trust  worth  v  system  whereby 
nature  might  l)e  interpreted  and  brought  into  the  service  of 
man.  Knowledge  was  to  be  sought  **  for  the  glory  of  the 
Creator,  and  the  relief  of  man's  estiite.'* 

The  only  true  knowledge  for  Bacon  was  a  knowledge 
which  was  power,  but  he  expressly  rejected  a  narrow  utili- 
tarianism. "  For  though  it  he  true,"  he  says,  "that  I  am 
principally  in  pursuit  of  works  and  the  active  department 
of  the  sciences,  yet  I  wait  for  harvest  time,  and  do  not 
attempt  to  mow  the  moss  or  to  reap  the  green  corn.  For 
I  well  know  that  axioms  once  rightlv  discovei'ed  will  carry 
whole  troops  of  works  along  with  them,  and  j)roduce  them, 
not  here  and  there  one,  but  in  clusters.  And  that  un- 
seasonable and  puerile  hurry  to  snat<;h  by  way  of  earnest 
at  the  first  works  which  come  within  reach,  I  utterly 
condemn  and  reject  as  an  Atalanta's  apple  that  hinders 
the  race." 


I 


INTRODUCTION.  7 

Ik^fore  proceeding  to  enunciate  his  own  system  of  pliilo- 
s<^»phy  Bacon  considei*ed  it  incuml)eut  upon  him  to  review 
the  whole  field  of  knowledge.  This  he  did  in  \\\e  Advance- 
ment of  Learning.  It  was  a  great  undertaking,  but  his 
was  an  age  of  intellectual  heroism,  when  men  were  imbued 
with  a  desire  for  omniscience,  and  even  lM)asted  that  they 
took  all  knowledge  for  their  province.  Bacon  considered 
the  time  to  In?  favourahle  for  such  a  venture,  and  amongst 
the  advantages  of  his  day  he  mentions  the  art  of  printing, 
the  discovery  of  the  New  World,  and  the  peaceful  state  of 
the  kingdom. 

Bacon  fully  recognised  the  magnitude  of  the  task 
and  the  im|K)ssibility  of  accomplishing  it  successfully. 
Nevertheless  his  classification  of  the  sciences  is  thought  by 
some  to  be  a  more  lasting  contribution  to  philosophy  than 
the  new  method  which  he  expected  would  accomplish  so 
much. 

The  philosophy  of  the  schoolmen  which  he  condemned 
Bacon  characterised  as  "Anticipation  of  the  Mind":  the 
new  he  termed  "  Interpretation  of  Nature."  To  signify 
his  complete  break  with  the  jmst,  and  his  opposition  to  the 
tra«litional  philosophy  which  drew  its  inspiration  from  the 
Organon  of  Aristotle,  he  entitled  his  great  work  the  Novum 
Orijanum, 

The  Novum  Organnm,  i.e.  the  new  instnunent  or  method 
of  thought,  is,  he  admits,  a  kind  of  logic,  but  a  logic  wholly 
different  from  and  opposed  to  the  logic  of  the  schools. 

For  the  end  which  this  science  of  mine  proposes  is,"  he 
maintains,  "  the  invention  not  of  arguments  but  of  arts. 
And  as  the  intention  is  different,  so  accordiutclv  is  the 
effect ;  the  effect  of  the  one  being  to  overcome  an  opponent 
in  argiuuent,  of  the  other  to  command  nature  in  action." 
He  consequently  rejects  demonsti*ation  by  means  of  the 
syllogism  and  employs  induction  throughout,  but  his 
theory  of  induction  he  likewise  distinguishes  from  that  of 
the  formal  logicians. 

Biicon's  system  is  a  form  of  induction  which  analyses 
experience  and  takes  it  to  pieces,  and  by  a  due  process  of 
exclusion  and  rejection  leads  \o  the  inevitable  conclusion. 
The  first  stage  in  the  process  is  the  collection  of  instances 


m^ms'^ 


8 


INTRODUCTION, 


to  be  invest iijatecl,  the  second  is  the  sorting  of  instances, 
and  the  third  the  rejection  or  excUision  of  instances  whiclido 
not  exhibit  the  essential  (qualities  of  the  phenomena  under 
examination.  Then  there  remains  '*  Form,  affirmative, 
solid,  true  and  well  limited."  The  use  of  experiment  with 
a  definite  purpose  was  not  recommended  bv  jiacon. 

The  baselessness  of  many  of  the  hypotheses  which  he 
found  in  the  science  of  his  time  induced  Ba<*on  to  disre- 
gard the  important  sei*vice  which  general  thinking  must 
perform  in  the  process  of  scientific  explanation.  His 
method  leaves  but  little  room  for  hypothesis  or  generalisa- 
tion, and  sometimes  he  seems  t^  have  thought  that,  were 
the  collection  of  instances  extensive  enough,  the  sifting  by 
the  methods  of  exclusion  might  go  on  mechanically  and 
extract  in  a  purely  mechanical  fashion  the  truth  contained 
in  the  particulars. 

In  this  error  lies  the  real  weakness  of  the  whole  method 
as  described  in  the  Novum  Oryanum.  It  ignores  the  com- 
plexity of  natural  processes,  and  it  introduces  a  needless 
distinction  into  the  processes  of  mind,  a  distinction  l)etween 
the  receptive  and  passive  on  the  one  hand  and  the  active 
and  formative  on  the  other.  At  the  same  time  we  can 
never  overlook  the  contribution  made  to  the  theorv  of 
induction  by  Bacon :  its  significance  lies  in  the  necessity 
for  the  application  of  the  method  of  elimination  or  exclu- 
sion and  in  the  definiteness  by  which  appeal  to  fact  is 
insisted  on. 

In  his  romance  entitled  the  New  AthirUis  Bacon  picture 
for  us  what  he  conceives  the  outcome  of  the  applica- 
tion of  his  new  method  might  be.  His  Utopia  is  the 
heaven  of  the  scientific  mind.  The  island  of  Bensalem  has 
an  ideal  polity  ;  it  is  not,  however,  over  its  jx)litical  and 
social  institutions  that  Bacon  lingers,  but  over  Salomon'^ 
House,  *'  which  house  or  college  is  the  very  eye  of  the  king- 
dom." This  foundation  is  the  emlx)diment  of  the  new 
scientific  spirit  which  Bacon  hoped  might  bring  happin* 
to  humanitv.  Salomon's  House  is  a  great  laboratorv 
equipped  with  all  manner  of  scientific  instruments,  and 
connected  with  it  is  an  organised  army  of  scientific  in- 
vestigators.     All  the  processes  of  nature  are  there  artifi- 


•'5^'-w4>'**«s"t  • 


INTRODUCTION. 


9 


cially  reproduced,  and  the  results  made  to  serve  mankind. 
But  Bacon's  vision  of  a  world  regenerated  by  science  has 
vanished  :  not  in  that  way  is  human  happiness  to  be  found. 
Indeed  John  Stuart  Mill  has  questioned  whether  all  the 
mechanical  inventions  yet  made  have  lightened  the  day's 
toil  of  any  human  t)eing. 

§  3.  Bacon's  Philosophy  of  Life. — In  religion  Bacon 
desired  unity  and  advocated  tolerance:  '*the  ancient  and 
true  bonds  of  unity  are  one  faith,  one  baptism,  and  not  one 
ceremony,  one  policy.** 

Ethics  he  makes  the  handmaid  to  Theology.  He 
preaches  no  gospel  of  duty  for  duty's  sake  and  condemns  all 
idealistic  systems,  commending  Machiavelli  the  more  for 
openly  and  unfeignedly  declaring  and  describing  what  men 
do  and  not  what  they  ought  to  do.  In  opposition  to 
Aristotle  he  prefers  the  active  to  the  contemplative  life. 
He  is  a  pragmatist  also  in  that  he  judges  the  rightness  of 
an  action  by  its  effects :  the  effects,  however,  are  to  be  con- 
sidered with  reference  to  the  good  not  of  the  individual, 
but  of  the  state. 

Bacon's  political  doctrines  are  influenced  by  the  Greek 
conception  of  the  state,  especially  by  the  views  of  Aristotle 
whom  he  professes  to  despise.  He  shares  with  Aristotle 
the  view  that  states  are  naturally  hostile  to  one  another, 
that  war  is  a  necessity  ;  and  his  statement  on  foreign  trade 
is  as  heterodox  economically  as  Aristotle's  dictum  on 
interest.  In  Bacon  w^e  miss  the  modeni  democratic  note. 
He  had  no  faith  in  democracy  and  like  the  Greeks  despised 
the  workers. 

§  4.  The  Essays. — Bacon  will  be  remembered  by  his 
literary  works  when  his  philosophical  writings  are  known 
only  by  name.  He  seems  indeed  to  have  had  some  intima- 
tion of  this  immortality  when  in  the  dedication  to  the 
Essays  he  predicted  that' they  might  List  *'as  long  as  books 
last." 

Bacon  has  himself  given  his  reason  for  describing  these 
works  as  Essays :  "  The  want  of  leisure  hath  made  me 
choose  to  writecertain  brief  notes,  set  down  rather  signifi- 
cantly than  curiously,  which  I  have  called  Essays."     They 


^laakiiaaafclri 


10 


INTRODUCTION. 


consist  merely  of  "axiomata  media,"  rough  generalisatious 
from  experience,  observations  collected  with  a  view  to  an 
inductive  and  exi)erimental  pliilosoj)hy  of  human  conduct, 
and  so  deserve  the  name  of  E^tsays  or  AtUtnpis.  Tlie 
word,  as  he  says,  was  new,  but  the  thing  old./  Montaigne's 
Essays  are  in  fact  the  only  important,  if  not  ihe  only,  writ- 
ings previous  to  the  time' of  Bacon  which  bear  the*  name, 
but  they  have  little  in  common  with  Bacon's  writings,  for 
Montaigne's  Essays  are  spontaneous  and  full  of'' vivid 
personal  feeling.  Bacon's  are  profound  and  compressed, 
and  are  delivered  in  a  m.mner  which  is  not  merely  authori- 
tative, Init  even  oracular,  j 

The  Essays  were  published  in  three  separate  editions,  of 
which  the  first,  containing  ten,  appeared  in  1597,  the  second, 
containing  tliirty-eight,  in  1612,  and  the  third,  contain- 
ing fifty-eight,  in  l(J2o,  the  year  before  Bacon's  death. 
Of  the  essays  included  in  tliis  selection  none  l>elongs 
to  the  first  edition;  the  essays  Of  Truth,  Of  Revenge, 
Of  Adversity,  Of  Simulation  and  Dissimulation,  Of  Envv, 
Of  Boldness,  Of  Seditions  and  Troubles,  Of  Travel  l)eloug 
to  the  third,  and  the  remaimler  to  the  second. 

Panidox  passes  for  philosophy  with  a  certain  class  of 
present-day  writers :  antithesis  *was  the  form  in  which 
Bacon  cast  his  thoughts.  This  trick  of  stvle,  it  has  l)een 
sugc^ested,  was  the  result  of  a  mental  habit' fostered  by  his 
practice  in  the  coiu-ts.  However  this  may  l)e,  Bacon  him- 
self discloses  his  method,  and  in  the  De  Augments  Scien- 
fiarum  he  sets  forth  in  tabular  form  the  antitheta  on 
various  subjects.  For  the  sake  of  illustration  those  on 
**  Kevenge ''  are  given  below. 

Rkvenue. 

For. 

Revenge  is  a  kind  of  wild 
justice. 

lie  who  i-equites  violence 
with  violence,  .sins  again.st  the 
law  but  not  against  the  man. 

The  fear  of  private  revenge 
is  a  useful  thing  ;  for  laws  too 
often  sleep. 


Against. 

He  that  did  the  first  wrong 
made  a  beginning  of  mischief, 
he  that  retumeth  it  maketh  no 
end. 

The  more  natural  ••'""•ijre  is, 
the  more  neetl  to  rt       i    .it. 

He  that  is  ready  to  return 
an  injury  was  belli ndhand  more 
in  time  perhaps  than  in  will. 


INTRODUCTION. 


11 


The  E^mys  remain  by  reason  of  this  method  a  mere 
comi)endium  of  practical  philosophy :  there  is  in  them  no 
immanent  dialectic  transcending  and  reconciling  in  a  liigher 
synthesis  the  opposition  of  thesis  and  antithesis. 

§  5.  Bacon's  Style. — **  These  modern  languages,"  says 
Bacon,  "will  at  one  time  or  another  play  the  bank- 
rowte  with  books."  So  t<>  preserve  his  own  writings  from 
oblivion  he  translated  into  Latin  as  many  as  he  could  of 
his  English  works,  e.g.  Esmys,  Advanrement  of  Learning, 
History  of  Henry  VI].,  alleging  as  his  reason  for  this  with 
regard  to  the  Esaays  '*  that  the  Latin  volume  of  them 
(being  in  the  luiiversal  language)  may  last  as  long  as 
books  last."  ^  Yet  the  language  he  affected  to  despise  has 
had  its  triumph  :  Bacon's  Latin  writings  are  now  read 
mainly  through  the  medium  of  English  translations,  while 
his  Essays  have  l»ecome  a  classic  of  the  language,  and  they 
owe  this  position  not  to  their  subject-matter,  but  to  theii' 
inimitable  style  and  fine  literary  flavour. 

Terseness  of  expression  and  epigrammatic  brevity  are 
the  most  obvious  characteristics  of  Bacon's  style  as  seen  in 
the  Essays.  Bacon  possessed  to  a  greater  degree  than  any 
i>ther  author  of  ancient  or  modern  times,  except  perhaps 
Tacitus  or  Aristotle,  the  power  of  compressing  into  a  few 
words  a  great  body  of  thought.  As  an  instance  may  l>e 
taken  the  famous  passage  in  the  Essay  of  Adversity, 
"Prosix^ritv  is  the  blessing  of  the  Old  Testament,  ad- 
versity is  the  blessing  of  the  New ;  which  carrieth  the 
L  'r  iKmiidiction  and  the  clearer  revelation  of  God's 
lavour."(^Thi8  terseness  of  style  is  often  attained  by  the 
avoidance  of  superfluous  epithets  and  by  the  omission  of 
the  ordinarv  joints  and  sinews  of  sj)eech,  such  as  conjunc- 
tions and  'other  logical  connections.  Yot  it  is  seldom 
oarrie<l  to  the  length  of  obscurity,  and^Bacon's  brevity 
is /matched  only  by  his  lucidity  and  cleaAess.  J 

/Another  striking  characteristic  of  Bacon>/style  is  his 
constajit  use  of  fi^nirative  lanpage.  \  In  his  day,  when 
conceits  and  far-fetcheJ  melaph^Warfd  comparisons  were 
the  delight  of  writers  both  of  prose  and  of  verse.  Bacon 

1  See  Dedication  of  Essays. 


'4Si'-?"«:"j  -ifi*.^*-  ■«  ■!*" 


:^  '  ^hi^  ''v.  'r^_ 


Sr  "l-.V*  .;  r(;ViAf^r<  '-W  il- 


12 


INTRODUCTION. 


distiuguislie<l  liimself  by  the  ingenuity  and  even  the  auda- 
city of  his  metaphors,  the  iiptness  of  his  ilhistratious,  the 
exuberance  of  his  fancy.  For  an  example  we  need  go  no 
further  than  the  tirst  essay,  where  we  find  the  striking 
passage :  *'  Certainly  it  is  heaven  upon  earth  to  have  a 
man's  mind  move  in  charity,  rest  in  providence,  and  turn 
upon  the  poles  of  truth." 

Equally  striking  is  the  extensive  use  of  ^^jjnijliuns;  these 
Bacon  sows  broadcast  through  the  Essays.  With  regard 
to  them  it  is  wort hj>oi lit iug  out  that  Bacon  did  not  trouble 
about  their  accura<:*v.  They  are  frequently  inexact,  but 
generally  more  forcit>le,  and  ahvays  more  serviceable  to 
him  than  the  exact  words  would  have  been,  for  he  does  not 
hesitate  to  alter  the  original  to  bring  it  into  harmony  with 
jt-e  new  context. 
{  The  language  of  the  Essays  is  largely  {permeated  with 
\Latinisms,  so  that  some  knowledge  of  Latin  is  highly 
8er\'iceable  to  the  reader.  Nevertheless,  though  Latin 
words  and  idioms  are  frequent,  the  English  lias  not 
suffered,  but  retains  its  natural  power  as  a  vehicle  of 
expression.     The  sentences,  says  Dean  Church,  are  brief 

rd  rapid  and  '*  come  down  like  the  strokes  of  a  hammer." 
That  Bacon's  style  was  the  result  of  labour  and  conscious 
art  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  he  considered  certain  pass- 
ages in  his  writings  to  be  like  finished  stones,  capable  of 
being  fitted  into  different  buildings.  The  fact  is  that 
Bacon  was  a  consummate  artist,  able  to  use  all  material 
eft'ectively,  and  that  he  invariably  suited  his  style  to  his 
subject.  Hence  it  is  difficult  to  find  any  constant  quality 
in  his  style.  Perhaps  the  dignified  self-esteem  which 
pervades  all  the  Essays  may  be  taken  as  the  chief  charac- 
teristic of  his  work. 


vkA 


H 


'f 


BACON'S  ESSAYS. 


Jlcbiratiou. 

^m      To  the  Bight  Honourable  my  very  good   Lord  the  Duke  ob^ 
m  Buckingham  his  Grace,  Lord  High  Admiral  of  England. 

Excellent  Lord, 
Solomon  says,  A  good  name  is  as  a  precious  ointment  ; 
and  I  assure  myself  such  will  your  Grace's  name  be  with 
posterity.  For  your  fortune  and  merit  both  have  been 
eminent,  and  you  have  planted  things  like  to  last.  I  do 
now  publish  my  Essays,  which,  of  all  my  works,  have 
been  most  current,  for  that,  as  it  seems,  they  come  home 
to  men's  business  and  bosoms.  I  have  enlarged  them 
both  in  number  and  weight,  so  that  they  are  indeed  a 
new  work.  I  thought  it  therefore  agreeable  to  my 
affection  and  obligation  to  your  Grace,  to  prefix  your 
name  before  them  both  in  English  and  in  Latin.  For  1 
do  conceive  that  the  Latin  Volume  of  them  (being  in 
the  universal  language)  may  last  as  long  as  books  last. 
My  Instauration  I  dedicated  to  the  King  j  my  History  of 
Henry  the  Seventh  (which  I  have  now  also  translated 
into  Latin)  and  my  portions  of  Natural  History,  to  the 
TjI  Prince  ;  and  these'l  dedicate  to  your  Grace,  being  of  the 
best  fruits  that,  by  the  good  increase  which  God  gives  to 
my  pen  and  labours,  I  could  yield.  God  lead  your 
Grace  by  the  hand. 

Your  Grace's  most  obliged  and  faithful  servant, 

Fr.  St.  Alban. 


14 


ESSAY  /. 


Oif  TRUTH. 


15 


I. 
OF  TRUTH. 

H7m«  ts  Truth  f  said  jesting  Pilate  ;  and  would  not 
stay  for  an  answer.  Certainly  there  be  tliat  delight  in 
giddiness,  and  count  it  a  bondage  to  fix  a  belief;  affect- 
ing free-will  in  thinking,  as  well  as  in  acting.  And, 
5  though  the  sects  of  philosophers  of  that  kind  be  gone, 
yet  there  remain  certain  discoursing  wits  which  are  ot 
the  same  veins  ;  though  there  be  not  so  much  blood  in 
them  as  was  in  those  of  the  ancients.  But  it  is  not  only 
the  dithculty  and    labour    which    men    tJike  in  finding 

10  out   of   truth — nor,  again,  that,  when    it  is    found,   it 

imposeth  upon  men's  thoughts — that  doth  bring  lies  in 

.favour  ;  but  a  natural  though  corrupt  love  of  the  lie  it 

self.     One  of  the  later  schools  of  the  Grecians examineth 

the  matter,  and  is  at  a  stand  to  think  what  should  be  in 

15  it,  that  men  should  love  lies,  where  neither  they  make 
for  pleasure,  as  with  poets,  nor  for  advantage,  as  with 
the  merchant,  but  for  the  lie's  sake.  But  I  cannot  tell  : 
this  same  truth  is  a  naked  and  open  daylight,  that  doth 
not  show  the  masques  and  mummeries,  and  triumphs  ot 

20  the  world,  half  so  stat^^ly  and  daintily  as  candle-lights. 
Truth  may  perhaps  come  to  the  price  of  a  pearl,  that 
.sheweth  best  by  day ;  but  it  will  not  rise  to  the  price  of 
a  diamond  or  carbuncle  that  sheweth  best  in  varied 
lights.     A   mixture  of  a  lie   doth    ever   add   pleasure. 

25  Doth  any  mnn  doubt,  that  if  there  were  taken  out  of  men's 
minds  vain  opinions,  flattering  hopes,  false  valuations, 
imaginations  as  one  would,  and  the  like,  but  it  would 
leave  the  minds  of  a  number  of  men  poor  shrunken 
things,  full  of  melancholy  and  indisposition,  and  unpleas- 

30  ing  to  themselves  1  One  of  the  fathers,  in  great  severity, 
called  poesy  vinum  dienionum^  because  it  tilleth  the 
imagination,  and  yet  it  is  but  with  the  shadow  of  a  lie. 
But  it  is  not  the  lie  that  passeth  through  the  mind,  but 
the  lie  that  sinketh  in  and  settleth  in  it,  that  doth  the 

85  hurt  such  as  we  spake  of  before.     But  howsoever  these 


ii 


things  are  thus  in  men's  depraved  judgments  and  1 
affections,  yet  truth,  which  only  doth  judge  itself, 
teacheth  thai  the  inquiry  of  truth  (which  is  the  love- 
making,  or  wooing  of  it),  the  knowledge  of  truth  (which 
is  the  presence  of  it),  and  the  belief  of  truth  (which  40 
is  the  enjoying  of  it)  is  the  sovereign  good  of  human 
nature.  The  first  creature  of  God,  in  the  works  of  the 
days,  was  the  light  of  the  sense  ;  the  last  was  the  light 
of  reason  ;  and  His  Sabbath  work,  ever  since,  is  the 
illumination   of    His  spirit.     First    He   breathed    light  45 

ffl      ^*P^^"  ^^^®  ^^^^  °^  ^^*^  matter,  or  chaos  ;  then  He  breathed 

I"      light  into  the  face  of  man  :  and  still  He  breatheth  aud 
inspireth  light  into  the  face  of  His  cliosen.     The  poet, 
that  beautified  the  sect  that  was  otherwise  inferior  to 
the    rest,  siiith   yet   excellently  well.  It    is   a  pleasure  50 
to  stand  ujxyn  the  shore,  and  to  see  ships  tost  njwn  the 
sea  ;  a  pleasure  to  stand  in  the  window  of  a  castle,  and  to 
see  the  battle,  and  the  adventures  thereof  below  ;  but  no 
pleasure  is  comparable  to  the  standing  upon  the  vantage 
ground  of  truth  (a  hill  not  to  be  commanded,  and  where  55 
the  air  is  always  clear  and  serene),  and  to  see  the  errors, 
and   wanderings,    and   mists,    and   tempests,  in  the  vale 
below;  so  always  that  this  prospect  be  with  pity,  and  ,  , 
not  with  swelling  or  pride.    .Gftrtftinly  it  is  heaven  upon     ~  - 
f>ariiL_to  havi-  9  Jn  charity,  rest  in  60      C 

providence,  and  turn  upon  the  poles  of.  truth,  ^  ^ 

To  pass  from  theological  and  philosophical  truth  to  "^ 
the  truth  of  civil  business,  it  will  be  acknowledged, 
even  by  those  that  pmctise  it  not,  that  clear  and  round 
dealing  is  the  honour  of  man's  nature,  and  that  mixture  65 
of  falsehood  is  like  alloy  in  coin  of  gold  and  silver, 
which  may  make  the  metal  work  the  better,  but  it 
embaseth  it.     For  these  winding  and  crooked  courses 

ijH     are  the  goings  of  the  serpent,  which  goeth  basely  upon  ^ 
the  belly,  and  not  upon  the  feet.     There  is  no  vice  that  70 

OH  doth  so  cover  a  man  with  shame  as  to  be  found  false 
and  perfidious ;  and  therefore  Montaigne  saith  prettily, 
when  he  inquired  the  reason  why  the  word  of  the  lie 
should  be  such  a  disgrace  and  such  an  odious  charge-- 
baith  he  If  it  be  well  weighed,  to  say  that  a  man  lieth,  is  75 


»r  t'^i 


^WM'^'^F^^ 


>-.?- 


7M'^  ■  ZiMS7^^^'^?f!^f^^  'I'"  ^'^^^'f:  w^^'Ss^i' ■ 


16 


£SSA  Y  II 


1  as  1)17 1 ch  as  to  say  (hat  he  is  brave  tovxirds  God,  and  a 
coward  Uncards  man  ;  for  a  ^'"  ^'^"^^-^  f'"'f.  ^io<l  shrinks 
frovi  man. 

Surely  the  wickedness  of  falsehood  and  breach  of  faith 

80  cannot   possibly  be  so  hif^hly  expressed   as  in  that   it 

shall  be  the  last  peal  to  call  tlie  judtjments  of  God  upon 

the  ireneratioDs  of  men:    it  being  foretold,  that  Mhen 

Christ  Cometh,  lie  shall  not  find  faith  ujwn  t''*^  earth. 


II. 
^OF  DEATH. 


_Men  fear  death  as  children  fear  to  go_in_thejrlark ; 
and  an,hat  natumOear  in  chiUieu  is-increjitied  with 
tales,  so  is.  the  otlier.  Certainly,  the  contemplation  of 
death,  as  the  iiaycs  of  sin  and  passage  to  another  world, 
5  is  holy  and  religious ;  but  the  fear  of  it,  as  a  tribute 
due  unto  nature,  is  weak.  Yet  in  religious  meilitation- 
there  is  sometimes  a  mixture  of  vanity  and  of  supers 
stitioii.  You  shall  read  in  some  of  the  friars'  books  of 
mortitication,   that  a  man  should   think   with   himself 

10  what  the  pain  is,  if  he  have  but  his  finger's  end  pressed 
or  tortured,  and  thereby  imagine  what  the  pains  of  death 
are  when  the  whole  body  is  corrupted  and  dissolved  ; 
when  many  times  death  passeth  with  less  pain  than  the 
torture  of  a  limb,  for  the  most  vital  parts  are  not  the 

15  quickest  of  sense  :  and  by  him  that  spake  only  as  a 
philosopher  and  natural  man,  it  was  well  said,  Povipa 
mortis  mafjis  terret  quam  mors  ipsa.  Groans,  and 
convulsions,  and  a  discoloured  face,  and  friends  weeping, 
and    blacks,   and  obsequies,  and   the  like,  show   death 

20  terrible. 

It  is  worthy  the  observing,  that  there  is  no  passion  in 
the  mind  of  man  so  weak,  but  it  mates  and  masters  the 
fear  of  death :  and  therefore  Death  is  no  such  terrible 
enemy  when  a  man  hath  so  many  attendants  about  him 

25  that  can  win  the  combat  of  him.     Revenge  triumphs 


^  • 


*  i 


Ik 


OF  DEATH. 


It 


over  death  ;  love  slights  it ;  honour  aspireth  to  it ;  grief    2 
tlieth   to  it ;  fear  preoccupateth  it ;  nay,  we  read,  after 
Otho  the  Emperor  had  slain  himself,  pity  (which  is  the 
teuderest  of  atYections)  provoked  many  to  die  out  of  mere 
compassion  to  their  sovereign,  and  as  the  truest  sort  of  30 
followers  ;  nay,  Seneca  adds  uiceness  and  satiety  :  Cogi- 
ta  quarndiu  eadeni  feceris  ;  morl  velle,  nun  tantum  fortis^ 
aut  mhier^  sed  etiam  fasiidiosus  j^olest,     A   man  would 
die,  though  he  were  neither  valiant  nor  mi.serable,  only 
upon  a  weariness  to  do  the  same  thing  so  oft  over  and  35 
over.     It  is  no  less  worthy  to  observe,  how  little  alter-   ^ 
ation  in  good  spirits  the  approaches  of  death  make ;  for 
they  appear  to  be  the  same  men  up  to  the  last  instant. 
Augustus  Ciesar  died  in  a  compliment.     Liviu  conjwjii 
nostri  memor,  vive  et  vale.     Tiberias  in  dissimulation,  as  40 
Tacitus  sidth  of  him,  jam  Tiberium  vires  et  catynSy  non 
dissimidatio,  deserebant.     Vespasian    in    a   jest,   sitting 
u{X)n  the  stool,  (It  puto  Deasfio.     Galba  with  a  sentence, 
Feri,  si  ex  re  sit  populi  Romania  holding  forth  his  neck. 
Septimius  Severus  in  dispatch,  Adesie,  si  quid  mihi  restat  45 
agendum.     And  the  like. 

Certainly  the  Stoics  bestowed   too  much   cost  upon 
death,  and  by   their  great  preparations  made  it  ap^>ear 
more  fearful.     Better  saith  he,  Qaifimm  vitie  extremum 
inter  munera  pomit  Xatnrx,     It  is  as  natural  to  die  as  50 
to  be  born  :  and  to  a  little  infant,  perhaps,  the  one  is  as 
painful  iis  the  other.     He  that  dies  in  an  earnest  pursuit, 
is  like  one  that  is  wounded  in  hot  blood :  who,  for  the 
time,  scarce  feels  the  hurt ;  and  therefore  a  mind  fixed 
and   bent  upon  somewhat  that  is  good  doth  avert  the  55 
dolours  of  death.     But,  above  all,  believe  it,  the  sweetest 
canticle  is,  Ximc  dimittis,  when  a  man  hath  obtained 
worthy  ends  and  expectations.     Death   hath  this  also, 
that  it  openeth  the  gate  to  good  fame,  and  extinguisheth 
envy.  00 

— Extiivctus  amabitur  idem. 


ms.  I    20 


,.■'!. 


18 


ESSAY  III 


OF  UNITY   TN  RELIGION. 


19 


yr 


IIL 


a 


OF  UNITY  IN  IlELIGION. 

^£LiGioii  beiiig  tke  chief  band  of  liumaH  soetefy,  '*  w 
a  happy  thing  wlien  itself  is  well  contained  within  the 
true  brtml-oL  unity.  The  quarrels  :uk1  divisions  about 
religion  were  evils  unknown  to  the  heathen.  The 
reason  was,  because  the  religion  of  the  heathen  consisted 
rather  in  rites  and  ceremonies  than  in  any  constant 
belief.  For  you  may  imagine  what  kind  of  faith  theirs 
was,  when  the  chief  doctors  and  fathers  of  their  church 
were  the  ix)ets.     But  the  true  Cod  hath  this  attribute, 

10  that  He  is  a  jealous  God  ;  and  therefore  His  worship  and 
religion  will  endure  no  mixture  nor  jmrtner.  We  shall 
therefore  speak  a  few  words  concerning  the  Unity  of  the 
Church  ;  what  are  the  Fruits  thereof ;  what  the 
Bounds  ;  and  what  the  Means. 

15  The  Fruits  of  Unity  (next  unto  the  well-pleasing  of 
God  which  is  all  in  all)  are  two ;  the  one  towards  those 
that  are  without  the  Church,  the  other  towards  those 
that  are  within.  For  the  former;  it  is  certain,  that 
heresies   and   schisms  are  of   all    others    the    greatest 

20  scandals,  yea,  more  than  corruption  of  manners.  For 
as  in  the  natural  hotly  a  wound  or  solution  of  continuity 
is  worse  than  a  corrupt  humour,  so  in  the  spiritual. 
So  that  nothing  doth  so  much  keep  men  out  of  the 
Church,  and  drive  men  out  of  the  Church,  as  brejich  of 

25  unity.  And  thei-efore,  whensoever  it  cometh  to  that 
pass  that  one  saith,  Ecce  in  deserto^  another  saith,  A'cce 
in  penetralihns, — that  is,  when  some  men  seek  Christ  in 
the  conventicles  of  heretics,  and  others  in  an  outward 
face  of  a  Church — that  voice  had  need  continually  to 

30  sound  in  men's  ears,  Nolite  exirc.     The  Doctor  of  the 

Gentiles  (the  propriety  of  whose  vocation  drew  him  to 

have  a  special  care  of  those  without)  saith,  1/  a  heathen 

come  171,  and  hear  you  speak  with  several  toiKjmSy  will  he 

^  not  say  tliat  you  are  mad?     And  certainly  it  is   little 

35  belter  when  atheists  and  profane  persons  do  hear  of  so 


*.v. 


%v 


many  discordant  and  contrary  opinions  in  religion  ;  it    3 
doth  avert  them  from  the  Church,  and  maketh  them  to 
sit  down  in  the  chair  of  the  scorn^^rs.     It  is  but  a  light 
thing  to  be  vouched  in  so  serious  a  matter,  but  yet  it 
expresseth   well  the  deformity  ;  there  is   a    Master   of  40 
scothng,  that  in   his  catalogue   of    books   of   a   feigned 
library,  sets  down  this  title  of  a  book.  The  Morris  Dance 
of  Heretics,      b'or,    indeed,   every   sect  of  them  have  a 
diverse  posture,  or  cringe  by  themselves ;  which  cannot 
but  move  derision  in  worldlings  and  depraved  politics,  45 
who^re  apt  to  contemn  holy  things. 

As  for  the  Fruit  towards  those  that  are  within,  it  is 
|)eace,  which  containeth  infinite  blessings.  It  estab- 
lisheth  faith  ;  it  kindleth  charity ;  the  outward  peace  of 
the  Church  distilleth  into  peace  of  conscience,  and  it  50 
turneth  the  labours  of  writing  and  reading  controversies 
into  treatises  of  mortification  and  de\  otion. 

Concerning  the  Bonds  of  Unity,  the  true  placing  of 
them  imj)orteth  exceedingly.     There  appear  to  be  two — 
extremes  ;  for  to  certain  zelants  all  speech  of  p;icifica-  55 
tion  is  odious.     Is  it  pence^  Jehu?     What  host  thou  to  do 
with   peace?    turn   t/iee   behind   me,    Peace   is   not   thet^ 
matter,  but  following  and  party.     Contrariwise,  certain 
LaodiceiAus    and    lukewarm    persons    think    they   may 
accommmlate  points   of   religion  by  middle   ways,    and  60 
taking  part  of  both,  and  witty  reconcilements,  as  if  they    i^ 
would    make   an    arbitrement   between  God   and   man. 
Both  these  extremes  are  to  be  avoided  ;  which  will  be 
done  if  the  league  of  Chri.stians,  penned  by  our  Saviour 
Himself,  were  in  the  two  cross  clauses  thereof  soundly  65 
and  plainly  expounded  :  He  that  is  not  loith  lis  is  against 
us  ;  and  again,  He  that  is  not  against  us  is  with  us ; 
that  is,  if  the  points  fundamental,  and  of  substance  in 
religion,  were   truly  discerned  and  distinguished  from 
points  not  merely  of   faith,  but  of  opinion,  order,  or  70 
good  intention.     This  is  a  thing  may  seem  to  many  a 
matter  trivial,  and  done  already:   but  if  it  were  done 
less  partially,  it  would  be  embraced  more  generally. 

Of  this  I  may  give  only  this  advice,  according  to  my 
suiall  model.     Men  ought  to  take  heed  of  rending  God's  75 


iiS»;t 


20 


ESSAY  III 


or  UNITY  IN  nELiaiON, 


21 


3  Church  by   two  kiii.ls    of   coiitiov€Tsies.     Tho   one    is, 
when  iho  matter  of  the  point  rontrovertcMl  is  too  snuill 
^       and   h-ht,    not    worth    the    heat   and    strife   about    it, 
knulled  only  by  contra.hction.      For,  ixs  it  is  noted  by 
80  one  of  the  fathers,  ChrUes  coat  imked  had  no  seam,  hut 
the  ChnrcJiH  vesture  was   of  divers  colours;  whereupon 
he  saith,  //*  vcste  vurietus  sit,  scissura  non  sit  ;  they  bo 
two  thin^xs,  Unity  and  Uniformity.     The  other  is,  when 
the  matter  of  the  point  controverted  is  gre.t,  but  it  is 
So  driven  to  an  over-great  subtilty  and  obscurity,  so  that 
'         It  beconieth  a  thing  nither  ingenious  tlian  substantial. 
A  man  that  is  of  judgment  and   understanding  shall 
sometimes  hear  ignorant   men    differ,   and   know    well 
within   himself   that   those    which   so   differ  mean  one 
90  thing,   and   yet    they    themselves    would    never   aoree 
And  it  It  come  so  to  pass  in  that  distance  of  judcMnent 
winch  IS  between  man  and  man,  shall  we  not  think  that 
God  above,  that  knows  the  heart,  doth  not  discern  that 
trail  men,  m  some  of  their  contra^lictions,  intend  tho 
9j  sjime  thing,  and  accepteth  of  both  ?     The  nature  of  such 
controversies  is  excellently  expressed  by  St.  Paul  in  the 
warning   and  precept  that   he   giveth    concerning    the 
same,   J)erUa  jn-ofanas   vocum  novitates  cl  opjmitiones 
Jalsi   nornmis  scieniiie.     Men  create  oppositions  which 
100  are   not,  and    put  them    into   new    terms   so   fixed    as 
whercjis  the  meaning  ought  to  govern  the  term,  'the 
term  in  effect  governeth  tho  mmning.     There  bo  also 
two  false  Peaces,  or  Unities,  the  one,  when  the  i)eace 
IS  gmuniled   but   upon   an  implicit    ignorance   (for   all 
100  colours  will  agree  in   the  dark)  ;  the  other  when   it  is 
pieced    up    upon   a   direct   admission    of   contraries    in 
fundamental  points.     For  truth  and  falsehood  in  such 
things  are  like  tlie  iron  and  clay  in  the  toes  of  Nebu- 
chadnezzar's image :  they  may  cleave  but  they  will  not 
110  incorporate. 

Concerning  the  Means  of  procuring  Unity,  men  musf. 

beware,  that  m  the  procuring  or  muniting  of  religious 

unity,   they   do  not   dissolve  and   deface   the   laws   of 

charity  and  of  human  society.     Thei^  be  two  sworda 

115  amongst  Christians,  the  spiritual  and  the  temporal  and 


1 


both  have  tlieir  due  office  and  place  in  the  maintenance    3 
of  religion.     But  we  may  not  take  up  the  third  sword, 
which  is  Mahomet's  sword,  or  like  unto  it — that  is,  to 
})ro|mgate  religion  by  wars,  or  by  sanguinary  persecu- 
tions to  force  consciences  (except  it  be  in  cases  of  overt  1 20 
scandal,  blasphemy,  or  intermixture  of  practice  against 
the  state),  much  less  to  nourish  seditions,  to  authorise 
conspiracies  and  rebellious,  to  put  the  sword  into  the 
people's  hands,  and  the  like,  tending  to  the  subversion 
of  all  government,  which  is  the  ordinance  of  Gpd.     For  125 
this  is  but  to  dash  the  first  table  against  the  second ; 
and  so  to  consider  men  as  Christians,  as  we  forget  that 
they  are  men.     Lucretius  the  poet,  wlien  he  beheld  the 
act  of  Agamemnon,  that  could  endure  the  sacrificing  of 
his  own  daughter,  exclaimed  : —  130 

Tantum  rcliyio  potuii  suadcre  malorum. 

What  would  he  have  said,  if  he  had  known  of  the 
massacre  in  France,  or  tlio  powder  treason  of  England  ? 
He  would  have  been  seven  times  more  Epicure  and 
atheist  than  he  was.  For  as  the  temporal  sword  is  to  be  1 85 
drawn  with  great  circumsjx^ction  in  cases  of  religion,  so 
it  is  a  thing  monstrous  to  put  it  into  hands  of  the 
conunon  people.  Let  that  be  left  to  the  Anabaptists 
and  other  furies.  It  was  a  great  ])lasphemy  when  the 
devil  said,  /  will  ascend  and  be  like  tite  Highest ;  but  it  140 
is  greater  blasphemy  to  personate  God,  and  bring  Him 
in  saying,  /  will  descend  awl  he  like  the  ■jn'i'^ice  of 
darhiess.  And  what  is  it  better,  to  make  the  cause  of 
religion  to  descend  to  the  cruel  and  execrable  actions  of 
murdering  princes,  butchery  of  people,  and  subversion  of  145 
stat<is  and  governments  %  Surely  this  is  to  bring  down 
the  Holy  Ghost,  instead  of  the  likeness  of  a  dove,  in  the 
shape  of  a  vulture  or  raven ;  and  to  set  out  of  the  bark 
of  a  Christian  Church  a  flag  of  a  bark  of  pirates  and 
assassins.  Therefore  it  is  most  necessary  that  the  150 
Church  by  doctrine  and  decree,  princes  by  their  sword, 
and  all  learning — both  Christian  and  moral — as  by 
their  Mercury  rod,  do  damn  and  send  to  hell  for  ever 
those  facts  and  opinions  tending  to  the  support  of  the 


•^^^^^^iJ^£^^^^^^^;&&^^^^M^^^^^ 


'Sm^diia,:' 


^«*-t  i.^   .j£."uf^ 


ti^aajg^-'Sarf  brff  iia^i^)a£  A3a^iiSfei^^fiaig«fe  ■aaaaa.M^illMiSfejgsi 


1^  Pf-y^ji'.^iVjr:  ]^rrp'!f^r:'^':-^miW?'^^m'W^W^ 


22 


J^^'.S'^r  IF, 


OF  ADVERSITY, 


23 


3  same,  as  hath  been  already  in  good  part  done.  Surely 
in  councils  concerning  religion,  that  counsel  of  the 
Apostle  would  be  prefixed,  Ira  hominis  non  implet  justi- 
tiam  Dei,  And  it  was  a  notable  observation  of  a  wise 
father  and  no  le.ss  ingenuously  confessed,  that  those  which 
IGO  held  and  pei'simded  jyi-essure  of  consciences  y  were  aymitioidy 
interested  therein  themselves /o7'  their  omn  ends. 


IV. 

OF  UEVENOE. 

Kevenge  IS  a  kind  of  wild  justice,  which  the  more 
man's  nature  runs  to,  the  more  ought  law  to  weed  it  out. 
For  as  for  the  first  wrong,  it  does  but  offend  the  law; 
but  the  revenge  of  that  wrong  putteth  the  law  out  of 
5  office.  Certaiulyj  m  iiiking  revenge,  anian  is  but  even 
with  his  enemy,  but  in  passing  it  over,  1  jverior; 

for  it  is  a  prince's  part  to  pardon  omon,  I  am 

sure,  saith.  It  is  theyTory  of  a  man  to  jxiss  >i  o^hi^^ 

That  whfrh  iiTTVost  is  gone  and  irrevocable,  and  wise 
10  men    have   enough   to   do  with   things  present  and   to 
come  ;  therefore  they  do  but  trifle  with  themselves,  that 
la])Our  in  past  matters.     There  is  no  man  doth  a  wrong 
for  the  wrong's  sj\ke,  but  thereby  to  purchase  himself 
profit,  or  pleiisuro,  or  honour,  or  the  like ;  therefore  why 
15  should  I  be  angry  with  a  man  for  loving  himself  better 
than  me?   And  if  any  man  should  do  wrong,  merely  out 
of  ill-nature,  why,  yet  it  is  but  like  the  thorn  or  briar, 
which  prick  and  sciatch,  because  they  can  do  no  other. 
The  most  tolerable  sort  of  revenge  is  for  those  wron<»8 
20  which  there  is  no  law  to  remetly  :  but  then,  lot  a  man 
take  lieed  the  revenge  be  such  as  there  is  no  law  to 
punish  ;  else  a  man's  enemy  is  still  beforehand,  and  it  is 
two  for  one. 

Some,  when  they  take  revenge,  are  desirous  the  |mrty 

25  should    know    whence   it   cometh.     This   is    the   moie 

generous.     For  the  delight  seemeth  to  be  not  so  ^cb 


S^cU 


in  doing  the  hurt,  as  in  making  the  party  repent.     But    4 
base  and  crafty  cowards  are  like  the  arrow  that  flieth  in 

the  dark. 

CJosmus,  Duke  of  Florence,  had  a  desperate  saying  30 
against  perfidious  or  neglecting  friends,  as  if  those 
wrongs  were  unpardonable.  You  shall  read  (saith  he) 
that  we  are  commanded  to  forgive  our  enemies;  hut  you 
never  read  tliat  we  a/re  commanded  to  forgive  our  friends. 
But  yet  the  spirit  of  Job  was  in  a  better  tune :  Shall  we  35 
(saith  he)  take  good  at  God's  Itands,  aiid  not  he  content  to 
take  evil  also  ?  And  so  of  friends  in  a  proportion.  This 
is  certain,  that  a  man  that  studieth  revenge  keeps  his  own 
wounds  gi-een,  which  otherwise  would  heal  and  do  well. 
Public  revenges  are  for  the  most  part  fortunate  ;  as  that  40 
for  the  death  of  Ciesar  ;  for  the  death  of  Pertinax  ;  for 
the  dejith  of  Henry  the  Third  of  France  ;  and  many 
moi-e.  But  in  private  revenges  it  is  not  so.  Nay 
rather,  vindicative  persons  live  the  life  of  witches,  who, 
as  they  are  mischievous,  so  end  they  infortunate.  45 


V. 

OF  ADVERSITY. 

It  was  an  high  six^ech  of  Seneca  (after  the  manner  of 
the  Stoics),  that  tfie  good   things  lohich  belong  to  Pros- 
jyerity  are  to  he  unsM,  hut  the  good  things  tltat  belong  to 
Adversity  are  to  he  admired.     Bona  rerum  secundarum 
optahiliay  adrersarum  niirahiiia.     Certainly,  if  miracles    5 
be   the   command   over   nature,    they   appear   most   in 
Adversity.     It  is  yet  a  higher  speech  of  his  than  the 
other  (much  too  high  for  a  heathen),  It  is  true  greatness 
to  Jiave  in  one  the  frailty  of  a  man,  and  tlie  security  of  a 
God.      Vere  magnumy  habere  fragilitatem  hominis,  securi-  10 
totem  Dei,     This  would  have  done  better  in  poesy,  where 
transcendencies  are  more  allowed  ;  and  the  poets,  indeed, 
have  been  busy  with  it.   For  it  is  in  effect  the  thing  which 
is  figured  in  that  stiiinge  fiction  of  the  ancient  poets, 


iiihA<*..jJMiifA  ^ 


iJ.ikttm.. 


24 


S'iSAr  V, 


b  which  seemeth  not  to  l>e  without  mystery,  nay,  and  to 
have  gome  approach  to  the  state  of  a  Christian  :  that 
Uei'cules,  when  he  went  to  unbind  Prometheu<i  (hy  whom 
human  nature  is  represented),  sailM  t/ie  length  of  the 
great  oc-an  in  an  eartJien  pot  or  pitcher ;  lively  describ- 
20  ing  Christian  resohition,  that  saileth  in  the  frail  bark 
of  the  flesh  througli  the  waves  of  the  world. 

But  to  speak  in  a  mean.     The  virtue  of  Prosperity  is 
temperance;  the  virtue  of  Adversity  is  fortitude  ;  which 
in  morals  is  the  more  heroical  virtue.     Prosperity  is  the 
25  blessing  of  the  Old  Testament ;  adversity  is  the  blessing 
y  of  the  New  :  which  carrioth  the  greater  benediction,  and 
the  clearer  revelation  of  Ood's  favour.     Yet  even  in  the 
Old  Testament,  if  you  list^Mi  to  David's  harp,  you  shall 
hear  as  many  hearse-like  airs  as  carols ;  and  the  {pencil 
30  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  hath  laboured  more  in  describing  the 
aniictious  of  Job  than  the  felicities  of  Solomon.     Pros- 
perity is   not  without  many  fears  and  distastes  ;    and 
Adversity  is  not  without  comforts  and  hopes.     We  see 
in  needleworks  and  embroideries,  it  is  more  pleasing  to 
35  have  a  lively  work  upon  a  sad  and  solemn  ground.  Than 
to  have  a  dark  and  melancholy  work  upon  a  lightsome 
gi'ound.     Judge,  therefore,  of  tho  ph^asure  of  the  heart 
by   the  pleasure  of  the  eye.      Certairdy  virtue  is  like 
precious  odoui-s,  mo.st  fi-agrant  when  they  are  incensed 
40  or  crushed  ;  for  prosperity  doth  best  discover  vice,  but 
adversity  doth  best  discover  virtue. 


OF  SlMULATIOy  AND  DISSIMULATION, 


25 


/ 


VI. 


OF  SIMULATION   AND  DISSIMULATION. 

Dissimulation  is  but  a  faint  kind  of  policy,  or  wisdom 
For  it  asketh  a  strong  wit  and  a  strong  heart  to  know 
when  to  tell  truth,  and  to  do  it.     Therefore  it  is  the 
weaker  sort  of  politiciansthat  are  thegi-eatest  dissemblei-s 
5      Tacitus  saith,  Livia  sorted  well  toith  the  arts  of  her 
f^ushand  and  dissimtdation  of  liej-  son  ;  attributing  a^^tjj 


w»1 


of  policy  to  Augustus,  and  dissimulation  to  Tiberius.    6 
And  again,  when  Mucianus  encourageth  Vespasian  to 
take  arms  against  Yitellius,  he  saith.  We  rise  not  against 
tlie  piercing  judgment  of  Augustns^  nor  the  extreme  caution  10 
or  closeness  of  Tiberius.      These   properties  of  arts  or 
policy,  and  dissimulation  and  closeness,  are  indeed  habits 
and  faculties  several,  and  to  be  distinguished.     For  if  a 
man  have  that  penetration  of  judgment  as  he  can  discern 
what  things  are  to  be  laid  open,  and  what  to  be  secreted,  15 
and  what  to  be  shewed  at  half-lights,  and  to  whom  and 
when  (which  indeed  are  arts  of  state,  and  arts  of  life,  as 
Tacitus  well  calleth  them),  to  him  a  habit  of  dissimulation 
is  a  hindrance  and  a  poorness.     But   if  a  man  cannot 
obtain  to  that  judgment,  then  it  is  left  to  him  generally  20 
to  be  close,  and  a  ilissembler.     For  where  a  man  cannot 
choose  or  vary  in  particulars,  there  it  is  good  to  take  the 
safest  and  wariest  way  in  general,  like  the  going  softly 
by  one  that  cannot  well  see.     Certainly  the  ablest  men 
that  ever  were  have  had  all  an  openness  and  frankness  25 
of  dealing,  and  a  name  of  certainty  and  veracity.     But 
then    they    were  like   horses  well  managed ;    for    they 
could  tell  passing  well  when  to  stop  or  turn  :  and  at  such 
times   when    they    thought    the   case   indeed   required 
dissimulation,  if    then  they  used    it,  it    came  to   pass  30 
that  the  former  opinion,  spread  abroad,  of  their  good 
faith    and    clearness    of    dealing,    made    them    almost 
invisible. 

There  be  three  degrees  of  this  hiding  and  veiling  of  a 
man's  self  :  the  fii*st,  Closeness,  Reservation,  and  Secrecy,  35 
— when  a  man  leaveth  himself  without  observation,  or 
without  hold  to  be  tJiken,  what  he  is;  the  second. 
Dissimulation,  in  the  negative, — when  a  man  lets  fall 
signs  and  arguments  that  he  is  not  that  he  is  ;  and  the 
third.  Simulation,  in  the  ailii  mat ive,— when  a  man  40 
industriously  and  expressly  feigns  and  pretends  to  be 
that  he  is  not. 

For  the  first  of  these,  Secrecy  ;  it  is  indeed  the  virtue 
of  a  confessor.     And  assuredly  the  secret  man  heareth 
many  confessions  ;  for  who  will  open  himself  to  a  blab  or  45 
a  babbler  I     But  if  a  man  be  thought  secret,  it  invitetb 


j-'^'x 


t'i*^.\.   ■^_J?! 


r'^^^^PJT^vfSSS?^^^ 


26 


ESSAY  VT. 


OF  PARENTS  AND  CHILDREN. 


27 


6  discovery,  as  the  more  close  air  suckcth  in  the  more 
open.  And,  as  in  confession  the  revealing  is  not  for 
worldly  use,  but  for  the  ease  of  a  man's  heart,  so,  secret 

50  men  come  to  the  knowledge  of  many  things  in  that  kind, 
while  men  rather  discharge  their  minds  than  impart 
their  minds.  In  few  words,  mysteries  are  due  to 
Secrecy.  Besides  (to  say  truth)  nakedness  is  uncomely 
as  well  in  mind  as  in  body  ;  and  it  addeth  no  small 

55  i-evorence  to  men's  manners  and  actions,  if  they  be  not 
altogether  open.  As  for  talkers,  and  futile  persons,  they 
are  commonly  vain  and  credulous  withal.  For  he  that 
talketh  what  heknoweth,  will  also  talk  what  heknoweth 
not.     Therefore  set  it  down,  that  an  habit  of  secrecy  is 

60  hiffh  jyolitic  and  moral.  And  in  this  jart  it  is  good  that 
a  man's  face  give  his  tongue  leave  to  speak.  For  the 
di.scovery  of  a  man's  self,  by  the  tracts  of  his  countenance, 
is  a  great  weakness  and  betraying  ;  by  how  much  it  is 
many  times  more  marked  and  believed  than  a  man's 

65  words. 

For  the  second,  which  is  Dissimulation,  it  followelh 
many  times  ujx)n  Secrecy,  by  a  necessity.  So  that  he 
that  will  be  secret,  must  be  a  dissembler  in  some  degree. 
For  men  are  too  cunning  to  suffer  a  man  to  keep  an 

70  indifferent  carriage  between  both,  and  to  be  secret,  with- 
out swaying  the  balance  on  either  side.  They  will  so 
beset  a  man  with  questions,  and  draw  him  on,  and  pick 
it  out  of  him,  that,  without  an  absurd  silence,  he  must 
show  an  inclination  one  way  ;  or  if  ho  do  not,  they  will 

75  gather  as  much  by  his  silence  as  by  his  speech.  As  for 
equivocations,  or  oraculous  speeches,  they  cannot  hold 
out  long.  So  that  no  man  can  bo  secret,  except  he  give 
himself  a  little  scope  of  dissimulation ;  which  is,  as  it 
were,  but  the  skirts  or  train  of  secrecy. 

80  But  for  the  third  degree,  which  is  Simulation  and 
false  profession,  that  I  hold  more  culpable,  and  less 
politic ;  except  it  be  in  great  and  rare  matters.  And, 
therefore,  a  general  custom  of  Simulation  (whieh  is  this 
last  degree)  is  a  vice  rising  either  of  a  natural  falseness, 

9^^^  or  fear  fulness,  or  of  a  mind  that  hath  some  main  faults, 
which  because  a  man  must  needs  disguise,  it  maketh 


him  practise  simulation  in  other  things,  lest  his  hand    6 

should  be  out-  of  ure.  ,  -r^.    .      i   .  • 

The  great  advantages  of  Simulation  and  Dissimulation 
are  three.       First,   to   lay    asleep    opposition     and    to  90 
surprise ;  for  where  a  man's  intentions  are  publislied^  it 
is  an  alarum  to  call  up  all  that  are  against  them.     The 
second  is,  to  reserve  to  a  man's  self  a  fair  retreat ;  tor 
if  a  man  engage  himself  by  a  manifest  declai^tion  he 
Inust   go  thro.^h,  or  take   a   fall.     The  thr'd  is,     he  95 
better  to  discover  the  mind  of  another  ;  for  to  him  that 
opens  himself  men  will  hardly  show  themselves  adverse 
but  will  (fair)  let  him  go  on,  and  turn  their  freedom  ot 
si>eech  to  freedom  of  thought.     And  therefore  it  is  a 
good  shrewd  proverb  of  the  Spaniard,  teU  a  lie  and  foul  100 
a  troth  :  as  if  there  were  no  way  of  discovery  but  by 
Simulation.     There  be  also  three  disadvantages  to  set  it 
even      The   iirst,    that   Simulation    and    Dissimulation 
commonly  carry  with  them  a  show  of  fearf ulness  which, 
in  any  business,  doth  spoil  the  feathers  of  round  flying  10& 
up  to  the  mark.     The  second,  that  it  puzzleth  and  per- 
plexeth  the  conceits  of  many,  that  perhaps  would  other- 
wise co-operate  with  him.  and  makes  a  man  walk  almost 
alone  to  his  own  ends.     The  third,  and  greatest,  is,  that 
it  depriveth  a  man  of  one  of  the   most   principal   in-  IIU 
struments  for  action;  which  is  trust  and  belief.     Ihe 
'  best  composition  and  temperature  is  to  have  openness 
in  fame  and  opinion  ;  secrecy  in  habit ;  dissimulation  in 
soa-sonable  use;  and  a  power  to  feign,  if  there  ^e  no  ^^^ 
remedy. 


s/r 


Til. 


OF  PATIENTS  AND  CHILDREN. 

The  joys  of  parents  are  secret,  and  so  are  their  griefs 
and  fears.  They  cannot  utter  the  one,  nor  they  wHl 
not  utter  the  other.  ChiUhen  sweeten  labours,  but 
they  make  misfortunes  more  bitter ;  they  increase  the 
cares  of  life,  but  they  mitigate  the  remembrivnco   of    5 


'■*l 


Jl4>3vi. 


i^t^' 


^V    V^"'X^V^5-¥-*-'* '^     -^'^^^^^^^^^^"'''^^^®'^ 


28 


USSAV  VII. 


OF  MARRIAGE  AND  SINGLE  LIFE. 


29 


7  death.  The  {erpetuity  by  generation  is  common  to 
beasts ;  but  memory,  merit,  and  noblo  works  are  proper 
to  men.     And  surely  a  man  shall  see  the  noble.st  works 

,^^?:  J^"°^*'^^^^"^^  *'''^'^  proceeded  from  childless  men, 
10  which  have  sought  to  express  the  images  of  their  minds 
where  those  of  their  bodies  have  failed.  So  the  care  of 
posterity  is  most  in  them  that  have  no  posterity.  They 
that  are  the  first  raisers  of  their  houses  are  most  in- 
dulgent  towards  their  children,  beholding  them  as  the 
15  continuance,  not  only  of  their  kind,  but  of  their  work- 
and  so  both  cliildren  and  creatures.  ' 

The  difference  in  affection  of  parents  towards  tlieir 
several  children  is  many  times  unequal,  and  sometinuvs 
unworthy,  esi>ocially  in  the  mother;  as  Solomon  saith 
20  A   wise  son  rejoweth  the  faUter,  hut  an   nmjnicioua  sou 
s/mmes  the  mother.     A  man  shall  see,  where  there  is  a 
house  full  of  children,  one  or  two  of  the  eldest  resT>ected 
and  the  youngrst  made  wantons  ;  but  in  tlie  midst  some 
that  are  as  it  were  forgotten,  who,  many  times,   ne^'er. 
J5  theless,  prr)ve  the  l)est. 

The  illiberality  of  jmrents,  in  allowance  towards  their 
children,  IS  a  harmful  error,  makes  them  ba.se,  acquaint« 
them  with  shifts,  makes  them  .sort  with  mean  company 
and  makes  them  surfeit  more  when  they  come  to  pleTity 
30  And  therefore  the  proof  is  best  when  men  keep  their 
authority  towards  their  children,   but  not  their  purse 
Men  have  a  foolish  manner  (both  parents,  and  school- 
masters, and   servants),   in   creating   and    breeding,  an 
emulation    between    brothers   during  childhood  •    which 
Sb  many  times  sorteth  to  discord  wlien  they  are  men  and 
disturbeth  families.  ' 

The  Italians  make  little  difference  between  children 
and  nephews,  or  near  kinsfolk ;  but,  so  they  l)e  of  the 
lump  they  care  not,  though  they  pass  not  through  their 
40  own  body.  And,  to  say  truth,  in  nature  it  is  much  a 
like  matter :  insomuch  that  wo  see  a  nephew  sometimes 
resembleth  an  uncle,  or  a  kinsman,  more  than  his  own 
parent,  as  the  blood  happens. 

Let  parents  choose  betimes  the  vocations  and  coarsea 
45  they  mean  their  children  should  take ;  for   then  they 


-^at'J 


are  most  flexible.  And  let  them  not  too  much  apply  7 
themselves  to  the  dispo.sition  of  their  children,  as  think- 
ing they  will  take  best  to  that  which  they  have 
most  mind  to.  It  is  true  that,  if  the  affection  or  apt- 
ness of  the  children  be  extraordinary,  then  it  is  good  50 
not  to  cross  it;  but  generally  the  precept  is  good, 
Opthnum  elujCj  stiave  et  facile  iliiid  faciei  coiisuetudo. 
^'oungiT  brothers  are  commonly  fortunate,  but  seldom 
never  or  where  the  elder  are  disinherited. 


10 


VIII. 

OF  MARRIAGE  AND  SINGLE  LIFE. 

II E  that  hath  wife  and  childrQB-.haJJi^iven  hostages 
^ta-ioi:iuue  ;  for  they  are  impediments  to  great  enteT^ 
prises,  either  of  virtue  or  mischief.  Certainly  the 
best  works,  and  of  gi'eatest  merit  for  the  public,  have 
proceeded  from  the  unmarried  or  childless  men  ;  which,  5 
both  in  affection  and  means,  have  married  and  endowed 
the  public.  Yet  it  were  great  reason  that  those  that 
have  children  should  have  greatest  care  of  future  times  ; 
unto  which  they  know  they  must  transmit  their 
dearest  pledges. 

Jr^me  there  are,  who,  though  they  lead  a  single  life, 
vet  their  thoughts  do  end  with  themselves,  and  account 
future  times  im pertinencies.  Nay,  there  are  some 
other  that  account  wife  and  children  but  as  bills  of 
fhargee.  Nay,  more,  there  are  some  foolish  rich,  cove-  15 
toua  men  that  take  a  pride  in  having  no  children, 
because  they  may  be  thought  so  much  the  richer.  For, 
perhaps,  they  have  heard  some  talk,  Such  a  one  is  a  great 
rich  inan,  and  another  except  to  it,  Fea,  hut  hs  hath  a 
great  charge  of  ddldren,  as  if  it  were  an  abatement  to  his  20 
riches.  But  the  most  ordinary  cause  of  a  single  life  is 
liberty,  especially  in  certain  self-pleasing  and  humorous 
minds,  which  are  so  sensible  of  every  restraint,  as  they 


N/' 


9s  ^**-? 


JTTV 


80 


ESSAY  VIII. 


8  will  go   near  to  think   their  girdles  and  garters  to  be 

25  bonds  an<l  shackles.  ^-^ 

Unmarried  men  are  best  friends,  best  masters,  Ijest 

servants  ;  but  not  always  best  subjects.     For  they  are 

light  to  run  away  ;  and  almost  all  fugitives  are  of  that 

vJJUa^.      condition.     A  single  life  doth  well  with  churchmen  •  for 

^y^^ .    '  30LbH4^zi^wtti-44»t:aiy  water  thn  «rrnimil   >v]iapq  jt  muiiLikaiL 

^^j^         ^  Ifill  a  pool.      It  is  indifferent  for  judges  and  magistrates  ; 

for  if  they  be  facile  and  corrupt,  you  shall  have  a  servant 

five  times  worse  than  a  wife.     For  soldiers,  I  find  the 

generals   commonly,  in    their   horlatives,    put   men    in 

35  mind  of   their   wives  and   children ;    and    I    think   the 

despising  of   marriage  among   the   Turks   maketh    the 

vulgar  soldier  more  base. 

.Certainly  wife  and  children  are  a  kind  of  discipline  of 
humanity;  and  single  men,  though  they  be  many  times 
40  more  charitable,  because  their  means  are  less  exhaust, 
yet,  on  the  other  side,  they  are  more  cruel  and  hard- 
hearted (good  to  make  severe  inquisitors),  because  their 
tenderness  is  not  so  oft  called  upon.     Gnive  natures,  led 
by  custom,  and  therefore  constant,  are  commonly  loving 
45  husbands,  as  was  said  of  Ulysses,  Vetidaui  snam  jn-mtidit 
immorUditati.    Chaste  women  are  often  [)roud  and  f re- 
ward, as  presuming  upon  the  merit  of  their  ch:istity.     It 
is  one  of  the  best  bonds,  both  of  chastity  and  obedience, 
m  the  wife,  if  she  thinks  her  husband  wise ;  which  she 
50  will  never  do  if  she  find  him  je;dous. 

Wives  are  young  men's   mistresses,  compjinions  'for 

'miOitto  age,  luid  old  meuV  nurses  ;  so  as   a  man   may 

have  a  quarrel  to  marry,  when  he  will.     Kut  yet  he  wai? 

reputed  one  of  the  wise  men  that  made  answer  to  the 

55  question  when  a  man  should  marry-  A  young  man  not 

yet,  an  elder  man  not  at  all.     It  is  often  seen  that  bad 

husbands  have  very  good  wives ;  whether  it  be  that  it 

misoth  the  price  of  their  husbiinds'   kindness  when  it 

comes,  or  that  the  wives  take  a  pride  in  their  patience. 

60  But  this  never  fails,  if  the  bad  husbands  were  of  their 

own  choosing,  against   their  friends'  consent ;  for  then 

they  will  be  sure  to  make  good  their  own  fully. 


^I*v 


-4fii» 


k 


*•>■.* 


^  ■» 


kr  ■♦-» 


\\h 


OF  ENVY. 


81 


5 


IX. 

OF  ENVY. 

TiiKRE    l>e  none  of    the  affections   which   have  been 
noted    to   fascinate   or    bewitch,  but  Love  and    Envy. 
They   both  have  vehement  wishes;  they  frame  them- 
selves readily  into   imaginations   and    suggestions,  and 
they   come   easily    into   the   eye,    especially    upon    the 
presence  of  the  objects  :  which  are  the  points  that  con- 
duce to  fascination,  if  any  such  thing  there  be.    We  see, 
likewise,  the  Scripture  calleth  envy  an  evil  eye  /  and  the 
astrologers  call  the  evil  influences  of  the  stars  evil  aspects : 
so  that  still  there  seemeth  to  be  acknowledged,  in  .the  10 
act  of  envy,  an  ejaculation   or  irradiation  of   the  eye. 
Nay,  some  have  been  so  curious  as  to  note  that  the  times 
when  the  stroke  or  percussion  of  an  envious  eye  doth 
most  hurt,  are  when  the  party  envied  is  beheld  in  glory 
or  triumph.     For  that  sets  an  edge  upon   envy  ;  and,  15 
besides,  at  such  time,  the  spirits  of  the  person  envied  do 
come  forth  most  into  the  outward  parts,  and  so  meet  the 

blow. 

But  leaving  these  curiosities  (though  not  unworthy  to 
be  thought  on  in  fit  place)  we  will  handle  what  persons  20 
are  apt  to  envy  others ;  what  jxirsous  are  most  subject  to 
he  envied  themselves ;  and  what  is  the  difference  between 
public  and  private  envy. 

A  man  that  hath  no  virtue  in  himself  ever  envieth 
virtue  in  others.  For  men's  minds  will  either  feed  upon  25 
their  own  good,  or  upon  others'  evil;  and  who  wanteth 
the  one  will  prey  upon  the  other  ;  and  whoso  is  out  of  hope 
to  atti\in  another's  virtue,  will  seek  to  come  at  even 
hand,  by  depressing  another's  fortune. 

A  man  that  is  busy  and  inquisitive  is  commonly  30 
envious.  For  to  know  much  of  other  men's  matters 
cannot  be  because  all  that  ado  may  concern  his  own 
estate.  Therefore  it  must  needs  be  that  he  taketh  a 
kind  of  play-pleasure  in  looking  upon  the  fortunes  of 
others.     Neither   can   he  that   mindeth    but    his   own  35 


I.  -w-       \     m     -i      i 


82 


ESSAY  IX. 


OF  ENVY. 


3S 


9  business  find    much    matter    for  envy.     For  envy  is  a 
gadding  pa^ssiou,  and  walketh  the  streets,  and  doth  nob 
keep  home  :  Non  est  curiosus,  quin  idem  sit  vmlevoliis. 
Men  of  noble  birth  are  noted  to  be  envious  towards 

40  new  men  when  they  rise.  For  tlio  disUnce  is  altered  : 
and  it  is  like  a  deceit  of  the  eye  that,  when  others  come 
on,  they  think  themselves  go  back. 

Deformed    persons,  and   eunuchs,  and  old  men,  and 
bastards,  are  envious.     For    he   that   cannot    possibly 

45  mend  his  own  case,  will  do  what  he  can  to  impair 
another's  :  except  these  defects  light  uj^n  a  very  brave 
and  heroical  nature,  which  thinketh  to  make  his  natural 
wants  part  of  his  honour ;  in  that  it  should  be  &iid  that 
an   eunuch,  or  a   Lime  man,  did   such  great    matters  ; 

50  affecting  the  honour  of  a  minicle ;  as  it  was  in  Narses 
the  eunuch,  and  Agesilaus  and  Tamerlane,  that  were 
lame  men. 

The  same  is  the  case  of  men  that  rise  after  calamities 
and  misfortunes.     For  they  are  as  men  fallen  out  with 

55  the  times,  and  think  other  men's  harms  a  redemption  of 
their  own  sufferings. 

They  that  desire  to  excel  in  too  many  matters,  out  of 
levity  and  vain-glory,  are  ever  envious.  For  they  cannot 
want  work  ;  it  being  impossible  but  many,  in  some  one 

60  of  those  things,  should  surpass  them.  Which  was  the 
character  of  Adrian  the  emperor,  that  mortally  envied 
|x)et8  and  paintei-s,  and  artilicera  in  works  wherein  he 
had  a  vein  to  excel. 

Lastly,  near  kinsfolk  and  fellows  in  oliice,  and  those 

65  that  are  bred  together,  are  more  apt  to  awvy  their  equals 
when  they  are  raised.  For  it  doth  upbraid  unto  them 
their  own  fortunes,  and  pointeth  at  them,  and  comet  h 
oftener  into  their  remembrance,  and  incuneth  likewise 
more  into  the  note  of  others  ;  and  envy  ever  redoubleth 

70  from  speech  and  fame.     Cain's  envy  wixs  the  more  vile 

and  malignant  towards  his  brother  Abel,  because,  when 

his  sacrifice  was  better  accepted,  there  was  nobody  to 

look  on.     Thus  much  for  those  that  are  apt  to  envy. 

Concerning  those  that  are  more  or  less  subject  to  envy. 

75  Fiist,  persons  of  eminent  virtue,  when  they  aro  advunceJ^ 


A  J«>« 


«rl«v 


4'  ■•'    ■♦  > 


M'  fr 


are  less  envied.     For  their  fortune  seemeth  but  due  unto    9 
them  ;  and  no  man  envieth  the  payment  of  a  debt,  but 
rewards  and    libei-ality   rather.      Again,   envy  is   ever 
joined  with  the  comparing  of  a  man's  self  ;  and  where 
there  is  no  comparison,  no  envy  :  and  therefore  kings  are  80 
not  envied  but  by  kings.     Nevertheless,  it  is  to  be  noted 
that   unworthy  persons  are  most  envied  at  their  first 
coming  in,  and  afterwards  overcome  it  better ;  whereas, 
contrariwise,    persons   of    worth   and    merit   are    most 
envied  when  their  fortune  continuetli  long.     For  by  that  85 
time,  though  their  virtue  be  the  same,  yet  it  hath  not 
the  sjime  lustre  ;  for  fresh  men  grow  up  that  darken  it. 
Persons  of  noble  blood  are  less  envied  in  their  rising. 
For  it  seemeth  but  right  done  to  their  birth.     Besides, 
there  seemeth  not  much  added  to  their  fortune ;  and  90 
«nvy  is  as  the  sunbeams,  that  beat  hotter  upon  a  bank, 
or  steep  rising  ground,  than  upon  a  fiat.     And,  for  the 
same  reason,  those  that  aro  advanced  by  degrees  are  less 
envied  than  those  that  aro  advanced  suddenly,  and  />er 

salt  urn,  ^^ 

Those  that  have  joined  with  their  honour  great  travels, 
cares,  or  perils,  are  less  subject  to  envy.  For  men  think 
that  they  ejun  their  honours  hardly,  and  pity  them 
sometimes;  and  pity  ever  hcaleth  envy.  Wherefore  you 
shall  observe,  that  the  more  deep  and  sober  sort  of  politic  100 
jM-rsons,  in  their  greatness,  are  ever  bemoaning  themselves 
what  a  life  they  lead,  chanting  a  quanta  jxitiimtr.  Not 
tliat  they  feel  it  so,  but  only  to  abate  the  edge  of  envy, 
r.ut  this  is  to  be  understood  of  business  that  is  laid  upon 
men,  and  not  such  as  they  call  unto  themselves.  For 
nothing  increaseth  envy  more  than  an  unnecessary  and 
ambitious  engrossing  of  business.  And  nothing  doth 
extinguish  envy  more  than  for  a  great  person  to  preserve 
all  other  infeiior  officers  in  their  full  rights  and  pre-emi- 
nences of  their  places.  For,  by  that  means,  there  be  so  110 
many  screens  between  him  and  envy. 

Above  all,  those  are  most  subject  to  envy  which  carry 
the  gieatness  of  their  fortunes  in  an  insolent  and  proud 
manner  ;  being  never  well  but  while  they  are  showing 
liow    great  tliey  are,  either  by  outward  pomp,  or   by  115 
K.SS.  1—20  ^ 


105 


L rtl^V'fit-T.-^^  •TJsCti  t  tjlilife- 


.^^a^i^si^isiAii 


:'>S% 


'^^WW^^- 


34 


JESS  AY  IX, 


OF  LOVE. 


35 


9  triumphing  over  all  opposition  or  competition.  Whereas 
wise  men  will  rather  do  sacrifice  to  envy,  in  suffering 
themselves,  sometimes  of  purpose,  to  be  crossed  and  over- 
borne in  things  that  do  not  much  concern  them.  Not- 
120  withstanding,  so  much  is  true,  that  the  carriage  of 
greatness  in  a  plain  and  open  manner  (so  it  be  without 
arrogancy  and  vain-glory),  doth  draw  less  envy  than  if 
it  be  in  a  more  oi-afty  and  cunning  fashion.  For  in  that 
course  a  man  doth  but  disavow  fortune,  and  seemeth  to 
125  be  conscious  of  his  own  want  in  worth,  and  doth  but 
teach  others  to  envy  him. 

Lastly,  to  conclude  this  part :  as  we  said  in  the  begin- 
ning that  the  act  of  envy  had  somewhat  in  it  of  witchcraft., 
so  there  is  no  other  cure  of  envy  but  the  cure  of  wit<-h- 
130  rnift  ;  and  that  is  to  remove  the  lot  (us  they  aill  it),  and 
to  lay  it  u|X)n  anotlier.     For  which  purpose,  the  wiser 
sort  of  great  persons  bring  in  ever  upon  the  stage  some- 
body upon  whom  to  derive  the  envy  that  would  come 
upon  themselves  ;  sometimes  upon  ministers  and  servants, 
135  sometimes  upon  colleagues  and  associates,  and  the  like. 
And,    for   that   turn,   there   are   never    wanting   some 
persons  of  violent  and  undertaking  natures,  who,  so  they 
may  have  power  and  business,  will  take  it  at  any  cost. 
Now,  to  speak  of  public  onvy,    Tiieio  is  yet  some  good 
140  in  public  envy,  whereas  in  private  there  is  none.     For 
public  envy  is  fus  an  ostracism,  that  eclipsoth  men  when 
they  grow  too  gi-eat.     And  therefore  it  is  a  bridle  also  to 
great  ones  to  keep  within  bounds. 

This  envy,  being  in  the  Katin  word  invidia,  goeth  in 
145  the  modern  languages  by  the  name  of  fh'sconienfwent  ; 
of  which  we  shall  speak  in  handling  Sedition.     It  is  a 
disease  in  a  Stat^  like  to  infection.     For,  as  infection 
spreadeth  upon  that  which  is  sound,  and  tainteth  it;  so, 
when  envy  is  gotten  once  into  a  SUite,  it  traduceth  even 
150  the  best  actions  thereof,  and  turneth  them  into  an  ill 
odoiu'.     And  therefore  there  is  little  won  by  interming- 
ling of  plausible  actions.     For  that  doth   argue  but 'a 
weakness  and  fear  of  envy,  which  hurteth  so  much  the 
more  ;  as  it  is  likewise  usual  in  infections,  which,  if  you 
155  fear  them,  you  call  them  upon  you. 


•   ► 


>  *    w  *    • 


#4 


PijSlTiEBA1fri*iii.'iTfi'i~-^iVi-ri'-i'*iii"" '-' ' 


I 


This  public  envy  seemeth  to  bear  chiefly  upon  principal  9 
officers  or  ministers,  rather  than  upon  Kings  and  Estates 
themselves.  But  this  is  a  sure  rule,  that  if  the  envy 
upon  the  minister  be  great,  when  the  cause  of  it  in  him 
is  small,  or  if  the  envy  be  general  in  a  manner  upon  all  160 
the  ministers  of  an  estate,  then  the  envy  (though  hidden) 
is  truly  upon  the  State  itself.  And  so  much  of  public 
envy  or  discontentment,  and  the  difference  thereof  from 
private  envy,  which  was  handled  in  the  first  place. 

We  will  add  this  in  general,  touching  the  affection  of  1C5 
envy,  that  of  all  other  affections  it  is  the  most  importune 
and  continual.     For  of  other  affections  there  is  occasion 
given  but  now  and  then  ;  and  therefore  it  was  well  said, 
Invidia  featos   dies  non    agit.     For  it  is  ever   working 
uix)n  some  or  other.     And  it  is  also  noted,  that  love  and  170 
envy  do  make  a  man  pine,  which  other  affections  do  not, 
because  they  are  not  so  continual.     It  is  also  the  vilest 
affection,  and  the  most  depraved ;  for  which  cause  it  is 
the   proper  attribute  of   the  Devil,  who  is  called   The 
envious  man  that  soweth  tares  among  the  wheat  by  night ;  175 
as  it  always  cometh  to  pass,  that  envy  worketh  subtilty, 
and  in  the  dark,  and  to  the  prejudice  of  good  things,  such 
as  is  the  wheat. 


X. 

OF  LOVE. 

TnE  stage  is  more  beholding  to  Love  than  the  life  of/ 
num.  For,  as  to  tlie  stage,  love  is  ever  matter  of 
comedies,  and  now  and  then  of  tragedies  ;  but  in  life  it 
doth  much  mischief,  sometimes  like  a  Siren,  sometimes 
like  a  Fury.  You  may  observe  that  amongst  all  the  5 
great  and  worthy  persons  (whereof  the  memory  re- 
maineth,  either  ancient  or  recent),  there  is  not  one  that 
hath  been  transported  to  the  mad  degree  of  love  :  which 
shows  that  great  spirits  and  great  business  do  keep  out 
this  weak    passion.     You  must    except,   nevertbelegs,  10, 


^«r3i 


-J  ." 


iV^i 


86 


iBa'5'^r  Jt. 


OP  ORE  AT  PLACE. 


37 


10  Marcus  Antonius,  the  half-partner  of  the  empire  of 
Rome,  and  Appius  Claudius,  the  decemvir  and  law-giver ; 
whereof  the  former  was  indeed  a  voluptuous  man,  and 
inordinate,  but  the  latter  wjis  an  austere  and  wise  man : 
15  and  therefore  it  seems  (though  rarely)  that  love  can  find 
entrance,  not  only  in  an  open  heart,  but  also  into  a  heart 
well  fortified,  if  watch  be  not  well  kept. 

It  is  a  poor  saying  of  Epicurus,  .S'af/«  nut^num  alter  alte^'i 
theatimm  suimts :  as  if  Man,  made  for  the  contemplation 

20  of  heaven,  and  all  noble  objects,  should  do  nothing  but 
kneel  before  a  little  idol,  and  make  himself  a  subject, 
though  not  of  the  mouth  (as  beasts  are),  yet  of  the  eye, 
wliich  was  given  him  for  higher  purposes.  It  is  a  strange 
thing  to  note  the  excess  of  this  passion,  and  how  it  braves 

25  the  nature  and  value  of  things,  by  this:  that  the  speak- 
ing in  a  perpetual  hyperbole  is  comely  in  nothing  but  in 
love.  Neither  is  it  merely  in  the  phrase.  For,  whereas 
it  hath  been  well  said,  that  the  arch-fiattorer,  with  whom 
all  the  petty  flatterers  have  intelligence,  is  a  man's  self  : 

30  certainly  the  lover  is  more.  For  there  was  never  a  proud 
man  thought  so  absurdly  well  of  himself  as  the  lover 
doth  of  the  person  loved.  And  therefore  it  was  well 
said,  that  it  is  imjyossihle  to  love  awl  he  xmae.  Neither 
doth  this  weakness  appear  to  others  only,  and  not  to  the 

35  party  loved ;  but  to  the  loved  most  of  all,  except  the  love 
be  reciproque.  For  it  is  a  true  rule,  that  love  is  ever 
rewarded  either  with  the  reciproque,  or  with  an  inward 
or  secret  contempt.  By  how  much  the  more  men  ought 
to  beware  of  this  passion,  which  loseth  not  only  other 

40  things,  but  itself.  As  for  the  other  losses,  the  poet's 
relation  doth  well  figure  them :  that  he  that  preferred 
Helena,  quitted  the  gifts  of  Juno  and  Pallas ;  for  whoso- 
ever esteemeth  too  much  of  amorous  affection  quitteth 
both  riches  and  wisdom. 

45  This  passion  hath  his  floods  in  the  very  times  of  weak- 
ness, which  are  great  prosperity  and  great  atlversity 
(though  this  latter  hath  been  less  observed) ;  both  which 
times  kindle  love,  and  make  it  more  fervent,  and  there- 
fore show  it  to  be  the  child  of  folly.     They  do  best  who, 

^0  if  they  cannot  but  admit  love,  yet  make  it  keep  quarter', 


♦  -.1 


«. 


#--* 


and  sever  it  wholly  from  their  serious  affairs  and  actions  10 
of  life      For  if  it  check  oBce  with  business,  it  trouWeth 
men's  'fortunes,  and  maketh  men  that  they  can  no  wa;s 
be  true  to  their  own  ends.     I  know  not  how  but  martial 
men  are  given  to  love :  I  think  it  is  but  as  they  are  given  55 
to  wine ;  for  perils  commonly  ask  to  be  paid  in  pleasures 
There   is   in   man's  nature  a   secret  inclination  and 
motion  towards  love  of  others,  which,  if  it  be  not  spent 
„,K,n  some  one  or  a  few,  doth  naturally  spread   itself 
towards  many,  and  maketh  men  become   humane   and  60 
charit,vble,  as  it  is  seen  sometime  in  friars      Njjpt.allovo 
maketh  mknkind  ;  friendly  love  perfecteth  it  T^  wanton 
IBVgrWWnptcth  and  f.t..i..=..th  it. 


XL 

OF  GPxEAT  PLACE. 

Men  in  Great  Place  are  thrice  servants ;  servants  of 
the  Sovereign  or  SUte,  servants  of  fame,  and  servants  of 
business.     So  as  they  have  no  freedom,  neither  in  tle.r 
persons,  nor  in  their  actions,  nor  in  their  t.raes      It  .s  a 
Grange  desire  to  seek  power  and  to  lose  liberty :  or  to    5 
seek  power  over  others  and  to  lose  power  over  a  man  s 
self      The  rising  unto  place  is  laborious ;  and  by  pains 
men  come  to  greater  pains :  and  it  is  sometimes  base ; 
Td  by  indignities  nien  come  to  dignities.     The  standing 
ts  slippery,  and  the  regre.s  is  either  a  downfall  or  at  lea^t  10 
an  eclipi  which  is  a  melancholy  thing      Cumn<m  svs 
qui  /«eW»,  non  esse  cur  velis   vivere^^    Nay,  retire  men 
Lnot  when  they  would,  neither  will  they  when  it  were 

reason,  but  are  impatient  "f  Pri/^j^n^^^.'..''^'^^,  'fj^^  ,5 
and  sickness,  which  require  the  shadow ;  like  old  towns^  Id 
men,  that  will  be  still  sitting  at  their  street  door,  though 
thereby  they  offer  age  to  .scorn.     Certeinly  great  persons 
had  need  to  borrow  other  men's  opinions  to  think  them- 
selves happy.     For  if  they  judge  by  their  own  feeling 
they  cannot  find  it;  but  if  they  think  with  themselves  20 


38 


SSSAY  XT. 


t|( 


OF  GREAT  PLACE. 


39 


11  what  otlier  men  think  of  them,  and  that  other  men 
would  fain  be  as  they  are,  then  they  are  happy  as  it 
were  by  report,  when,  perhaps,  they  find  the  contrary 
withm.     For  they  are  the  first  that  find  tlieir  own  griefs, 

25  though  they  be  the  hist  that  find  tlieir  own  faults. 
Certainly,  men  in  great  fortunes  are  strangers  to 
themselves,  and  while  they  are  in  the  puzzle  of  business, 
they  have  no  time  to  tend  their  health,  either  of  body  or 
mind,     ini  mors  gravis  incahat,  qui  notm  nimis  omnihus, 

o\j  tff^notiis  moi'itiw  sibi. 

In  place  there  is  license  to  do  good  and  evil,  whereof 
the  latter  is  a  curse ;  for  in  evil,  the  best  condition  is 
not  to  will,  the  second  not  to  can.  But  power  to  do 
good  IS  the  true  and  lawful  end  of  aspiring.     For  good 

35  thoughts,  though  God  accept  them,  yet  towards  men  are 
httle  better  than  good  dreams,  except  they  be  put  in  act ; 
and  that  cjinnot  be  without  power  and  phice,  as  the 
vantage  and  commanding  ground.  Merit  and  good  works 
IS  the  end  of  man^s  motion,  and  conscience  of  the  same 

40  is  the  accomplishment  of  man's  rest.  For  if  a  man  can 
be  a  partaker  of  God's  theatre,  he  shall  likewise  be 
partjiker  of  God's  rest.  El  converms  Ueus,  ut  mpiceret 
o])€ra,  qumfecenuU  tmums  mte,  vidit  qjwd  omnia  essent 
hoiia  nimis  ;  and  then  the  Sabbath. 

45  In  the  discharge  of  thy  place  set  before  thee  the  best 
examples ;  for  imitation  is  a  globe  of  precepts.  And 
after  a  time  set  before  thee  thine  own  example,  and 
examine  thyself  strictly  whether  thou  didst  not  best  at 
farst.     Neglect  not  also  the  examples  of  those  that  have 

50  carried  themselves  ill  in  the  siime  place  ;  not  to  set  off 
thyself  by  taxing  their  memory,  but  to  direct  thyself 
what  to  avoid.  Reform,  therefore,  without  bravery,  or 
scandal  of  former  times  and  persons  :  but  yet  set  it  down 
to  thyself,  as  well  to  create  good  precedents  as  to  follow 

55  them.  Reduce  things  to  the  first  institution,  and  observe 
wherein  and  how  they  have  degenerated  :  but  yet  ask 
counsel  of  both  times  ;  of  the  ancient  time,  what  is  best  • 
and  of  the  latter  time,  what  is  fittest.  Seek  to  make 
thy  course  regular,  that  men  may  know  beforehand  what 

bU  they  may  expect ;  but  be  not  too  positive  and  peremp 


-^  lA 


•   »M*   ♦ 


tory,  and  express  thyself  well  wlien  thou  digressest  from  11 
thy  rule.  Preserve  the  right  of  thy  place,  but  stir  not 
(lueslions  of  jurisdiction  ;  and  rather  assume  thy  right 
in  silence,  and  de  facto,  than  voice  it  with  claims  and 
challenges.  Preserve  Ukewise  the  rights  of  inferior  65 
places,  and  think  it  more  honour  to  direct  in  chief  than 
to  be  busy  in  all.  Embrace  and  invito  helps  and  advices 
touching*the  execution  of  thy  place ;  and  do  not  drive 
away  such  as  bring  thee  information,  as  meddlers,  but 
accept  of  them  in  good  part.  '  ^ 

The  vices  of  authority  are  chiefly   four  :  delays,  cor- 
ruption, roughness,  and  facility.     For  delays  :  give  easy 
access;   keep   times  appointed;  go  through   with  that 
which  is  in  hand,  and   interlace   not  business   but  of 
necessity.     For  corruption  :  do  not  only  bind  thme  own  75 
hands  or  thy  servants'  hands  from  taking,  but  bind  the   ^ 
hands  of  suitors  also  from  offering.     For  integrity  used 
doth   the   one;    but   integrity    professed,   and    with  a 
manifest  detestation  of  bribery,  doth  the  other.     And 
avoid   not   only    the    fault  but    the  suspicion.     Who- »0 
soever  is  found  variable  and  changeth  manifestly  with- 
out  manifest    cause,    giveth    suspicion    of    corruption, 
'rherefore   always   when  thou   changest    thme    opinion 
or  course,    profess    it   plainly,  and  declare   it,  together 
with    the    reasons    that    move    thee    to    change:    and  H& 
do  not  think   to  sl^al  it.     A  servant   or  a  favourite, 
if  he  be  inward,  and  no  other  apparent  cause  of  esteem, 
is  commonly  thought  but  a  by-way  to  close  corruption. 
For  roughness  ;  it  is   a  needless  cause  of  discontent  : 
severity    breedeth  fear,   but  roughness  breedeth    hate.  90 
Even  reproofs  from  authority  ought  to  be  grave,  and  not 
taunting.      As  for  facility,  it  is   worse   than   bribery. 
For  bribes  come  but  now  and  then ;  but  if  importunity 
or  idle  respects  lead  a  man,  he  shall  never  be  without. 
As  Solomon  saith.  To  respect  persons  it  is  not  good,  for  yD 
•   8uch  a  vian  will  transgress  for  a  jnece  of  bread. 

It  is  most  true  that  was  anciently  spoken,  A  place 
showeih  tlte  man.  And  it  showeth  some  to  the  better, 
and  some  to  the  worse.  Omniam  consensu,  capaxim- 
perii,  nisi  imperasset,  saith  Tacitus  of  Galba;  but  of  Ves-  100 


''■'Miiif-: 


40 


£s^-./r  Av/. 


Oif  BOLDNESS. 


41 


11  pasian  he  saitb,  Solus  unjjeranlium,  Vesjtasuiniis  mttlnfus 
in  melhis.  Though  the  one  was  meant  of  suihciency,  the 
other  of  manners  and  affection.  It  is  an  a.ssure(i  sign  of 
a  worthy  and  generous  spirit,   whom   lionour  amends. 

105  For  honour  is,  or  should  be,  the  phice  of  virtue  :  and 
as  in  nature  things  move  violently  to  their  place,  and 
calmly  in  their  place,  so  virtue  in  ambition  is  violent,  in 
authority  settled  and  Ciilm. 

All  rising  to  great  place  is  by  a  winding  stair;  and 

110  if  there  be  factions,  it  is  good  to  side  a  miui's  i^elf  whilst 
he  is  in  the  rising,  and  to  balance  hinLself  when  he  is 
placed. 

Use  the  memory  of  thy  predecessor  fairly  and  tenderly; 
for  if  thou  dost  not,  it  is  a  debt  will  surely  be  paid  when 

115  thou  art  gone.  If  thou  have  colleagues,  resjxjct  them  ; 
and  rather  call  them  when  they  look  not  for  it,  than 
exclude  them  when  they  have  reason  to  look  to  be 
called.  Be  not  too  sensible  or  too  remembering  of  thy 
place  in  conversation   and   private   answers  to  suitors ; 

120  but  let  it  i-ather  be  said,  When  he  sits  in  place  he  is 
anotlter  man. 


\/ 


XII. 

OF  BOLDNESS. 

It  is  a  trivial  grammar-school  text,  but  yet  worthy  a 
wise  man's  consideration  :  question  was  asked  of  Demos- 
thenes, What  was  the  chief  jmrt  of  an  orator-  ?  he  answered, 
Action:   What  next?  Action:    What  next  again?  Actimi. 
5  He  said  it  that  knew  it  best,  and  had  by  nature  himself 
no  advantage  in  that  he  commended.     A  strange  thing, 
that  that  part  of  an  orator  which  is  but  superficial,  and 
rather  the  virtue  of  a  player,  should  be  placed  so  high 
above  those  other  noble  parts,  of  invention,  elocution, 
10  and  the  rest ;  nay,  almost  alone,  as  if  it  were  all  in  all. 
But  the  reason  is  plain.     Thery  is  in  liuitian  natjire  gene-^ 
^rally  more  oTthe  fool  than  of  the  wise ;  and  therefore 


'•  w.r 


^L*^ 


(1 


I 


those  faculties  by  which  the  foolish  part  of  men  s  minds  12 
is  taken  are  most  ix)ient.     Wonderful  hke  is  the  case  of 
boldness  in  civil  business  ;  What  first?  boldness:  What  15 
second   and    third  1    bohlness.     And   yet   boldness   is  a 
child  of  ignorance  and  baseness,  far    inferior  to   other 
Darts.    But,  nevertheless,  it  doth  fascinate  and  bind  hand 
and  foot  those  that  are  either  shallow  in  judgment  or 
w«ik  in  courage,  which  are  the  greatest  part ;  yea,  and  -U 
prevaileth  with  wise  men  at  we;ik  time..     Iherefore  we 
see  it  hath  done  wonders  in   popular  States ;  but  with 
senates  and  princes  less:  and  more  ever  upon  the  lirst 
entrance  of  bold   persons  into  action,  than  soon  after; 
for  boldness  is  an  ill  keeper  of  promise.  ,       , ,    , 

Surely  as  there  are  mountebanks  for  the  natural  body, 
so  there  are  mountebanks  for  the  politic  body  ;  men  that 
undert^vke  great  cures,  and  perhaps  have  been  lucky  in 
two  or  three  experiments,   but   want   the   grounds  of 
science,  and  therefore  cannot  hold  out.     Nay  you  shall  dU 
see  a  bold  fellow    many   times  do    Mahomet  s  miracle. 
Mahomet  made  the  people  believe  that  he  would  call  a 
hill  to  him,  and  from  the  top  of  it  offer  up  his  prayers 
for  the  obsel•^'e^s  of  his  law.     The  people  assembled  ; 
Mahomet  called  the  hill  to  come  to  him  again  and  again  ;  do 
and  when   the  hill   stood   still,   he    was   never   a  whit 
abashed,  but  said,  If  tlie  hiU  will  not  conie  to  Mahomet,   ^ 
McUiomet  wUl  go  to  the  MIL     So  these  men,  when  they 
have  promised  great  matters,  and  failed  most  shame  uUy, 
yet,  if  they  have  the  perfection  of  boldness,  they  will  but  40 
slight  it  over,  and  make  a  turn,  and  no  more  ado. 

Certainly  to  men  of  gre;it  judgment  bold  persons  are 
sport  to  behold  ;  nay,  and  to  the  vulgar  also  boldness 
hath  somewhat  of  the  ridiculous.     For,  if  absurdity  be 
the  subject  of  laughter,  doubt  you  not  but  great  bold-  4o 
nes8  is  seldom  without  some  absurdity.     Especially  it  is 
a  sport  to  see  when  a  bold  fellow  is  out  of  countenance, 
for  that  puts  his  face  into  a  most  shrunken  and  wooden 
posture :  as  needs  it  must ;  for  in  bashf ulness  the  spirits 
do  a  little  go  and  come,  but  with  bold  men,  upon  hke  50 
occasion,  they  stand  at  a  stay  ;  like  aUSialfi-aL-^ili^ 
where  it  is  no  mate,  but  yet  the  game  cannot  stir.     15ut 


t^ 


■  C  »      ■  o> . 


mf^WP^w^^'^^  -ff^^ 


42 


ESS  A  r  XIIL 


12  this   last   wero   fitter   for  a  satire   thau   for  a    serious 
observation. 

55      This  is  well  to  be  weighed,  that  boldness  is  ever  blind 
*   .J.    .,?*:•'''''  """^  J-iiigers  and  inconveniences.     Tiierefore 
»s  '"  •"  counsel,  good  in  execution.     So  that  the  right 
use  of  bold  persons  is,  that  they  never  command  in  chief, 
but  be  seconds,  and  under  the  direction  of  others.     For 
60  m  counsel  it  is  good  to  see  dangers,  and  in  execution  not 
to  see  them,  except  they  be  very  great. 


xiir. 

OF  GOODNESS,  AND  GOODNESS  OF  NATURE. 

I  TAKE  Goodness  in  this  sense— the  affecting  of  the 
weal  of  men,  which  is  that  the  Grecians  call  I'hilaalhropia ; 
and  the  word  Immanily  (as  it  is  use,l)  is  a  little  too 
light  to  express  it.  Goo.lness  I  call  the  habit,  and  Good- 
5  ness  of  Nature  the  inclination.  This,  of  all  virtues  and 
dignities  ot  the  mind,  is  the  greatest,  Injing  the  charecter 
of  the  Deity;  and  without  it,  man  is  a  busy,  mis- 
chievous,  wretched   thing,    no   better   than   a   kind  of 

inJ-fT'     ^^^"^'^  answers   to  the   theological  virtue, 
10  Charity,  and  admits  no  excess,  but  error. 

The  desire  of  power,  in  excess,  caused  the  angels  to 
fa  ;  the  desire  of  knowledge,  in  excess,  cau.sed  man  to 
tall ;  but  in  charity  there  is  no  excess ;  neither  can  angel 
or  man  come  m  danger  by  it.     The  inclination  to  good- 

15  ness  IS  imprinted  deeply  in  the  nature  of  man ;  insomuch 
that.  It  It  issue  not  towards  men,  it  will  take  unto  other 
living  creatures  :  as  it  is  seen  in  the  Turks,  a  cruel  people, 
who,  nevertheless,  are  kind  to  be.-,sts,  and  gives  alms  to 
dogs  and  birds  ;  insomuch   as  Busbechius  reporteth,  a 

20Chnsl,.an  boy  in  Constantinople  had  like  to  have  b^n 

stoned  for  gagging,  in  a  waggishness,  a  long-billed  fowl. 

Errors,  indeed,  in  this  virtue  of  goodness  or  charity, 

may  be  committed.     The  Italians  have  an  ungracious 

proverb,  lanlo  buon  die  val  nknie :  So  good  lluil  he  U 


f 


V  P  * 


OV  GOODNESS,  AND  GOODNESS  OF  NATURE.     43 

good  for  noUnng.     And  one   of   the   doctors   of    Italy,  13 
Nicholas  Machiavel,  had  the  confidence  to  put  in  writing, 
almost  in  plain  terms,  that  tlie  Christian  faith  had  given 
up  good  men  in  j/rey  to  those  ivho  are  tyrannical  and  unjust. 
Which  he  si>ake  l)ecause,  indeed,  there  was  never  law,  or 
sect,  or  opinion,  did  so  much   magnify  goodness  as  the  30 
Ciuistian  religion  doth.    Therefore,  to  avoid  the  scandal, 
and  the  danger  V)oth,  it  is  good  to  take  knowledge  of  the 
errors  of  an  habit  so  excellent.     Seek  the  good  of  other 
men,  but  be  not  in  bondage  to  their  faces  or  fancies  :  for 
that  is  but  facility  or  softness ;  which  taketh  an  honest  35 
mind  prisoner.     Neither  give  thou  ^sop's  cock  a  gem,   ^ 
who  would  be  better  pleased  and  happier  if  he  had  had  a 
b;irley-coru.     The  example  of  God  teacheth  the  lesson 
truly :  lie  sendeth  his  rain,  and  maketh  his  sun  to  shine 
upon  the  jnst  and  the  unjust ;  but   He  doth    not  rain  40 
wealth  nor  sliine  honour  and  virtues  upon  men  equally. 
Common  benefits  are  to  be  communicate  with  all ;  but 
peculiar   benefits   with  choice.      And    beware   how,    in 
making  the  portraiture,  thou  breakest  the  pattern.     For 
divinity  maketh  the  love  of  ourselves  the  pattern,  the  45 
love  of  our  neighbours  but  the  portraiture.     Sell  all  thou 
hast,  and  give  it  to  t/ie  poor,  and  follow  me  ;  but  sell  not 
all  thou   hast,  except  thou  come  and  follow  me  :  that 
is,  except  thou  have  a  vocation  wherein  thou  mayest 
do   as   much    good    with   little    means   as    with    great  \  50 
for  otherwise,  in  feeding  the  streams,   thou  driest  the 
fountain. 

Neither  is  there  only  a  habit  of  goodness  directed  by    ^ 
right  reason ;  but  there  is  in  some  men,  even  in  nature, 
a  disposition  towards  it ;  as,  on  the  other  side,  there  is  55 
a  natural  malignity ;  for  there  be  that  in  their  nature 
do  not  affect  the  good  of  others.     The  lighter  sort  of 
malignity  turneth  but  to  a  crossness,  or  frowardness, 
or  aptness  to  oppose,  or  difiicilness,  or  the  like ;  but  the 
deeper  sort  to  envy,  and  mere  mischief.     Such  men,  in  60 
other  men's  calamities,  are,  as  it  were,  in  season,  and  — 
ai-e  ever  on  the  loading  part :  not  so  good  as  the  dogs 
that  licked  Lazarus'  sores,  but  like  flies  that  are  still 
buzzing  upon  anything  that  is  luw  :  Mlsanihropij  that 


% 


l'?H^ii5pfc?tfiH^#e/-w-iiW,-kj,  *»      *  ..^ 


■i-s*.'^'d 


r4«v.. 


44 


^^i'^F  jc/r. 


13  make  it  their  practice  to  bring  men  to  the  bough,  ami 
yet  never  have  a  tree  for  the  pur{K)se  in  their  gardens, 
ivs  Timou  had.  Such  dis]X)sitions  are  the  very  errors  of 
human  nature  ;  and  yet  they  are  the  fittest  timber  to 
make  great  politiques  of :  like  to  knee-timber,  that  is 

70  good  for  ships  that  are  ordained  to  be  tossed,  but  not 
for  building  houses  that  shall  stand  firm. 

The  parts  and  signs  of  goodness  are  many.  If  a  man 
be  gracious  and  courteous  to  strangers,  it  shows  he  is  a 
citizen  of  the  world,  and  that  his  heart  is  no  island  cut 

75  off  from  other  hmds,  but  a  continent  that  joins  to  them. 
If  he  be  compassionate  towards  the  aflliction  of  others, 
it  shows  tluit  his  heart  is  like  tlie  noble  tree  that  is 
wounded  itself  when  it  gives  the  bilm.  If  he  easily 
pardons  and  remits  offences,  it  shows  that  his  mind  is 

80  planted  above  injuries,  so  that  lie  cannot  be  shot.  If  he 
be  thankful  for  small  benefits,  it  shows  that  he  weighs 
men's  minds,  and  not  their  trash.  But,  above  all,  if  he 
have  St.  Paul's  perfection,  that  he  would  wish  to  be  an 
anatltema  from  Christ,  for  the  sjilvation  of  his  brethen, 

85  it  shows  much  of  a  divine  nature,  and  a  kind  of  con- 
formity with  Christ  Himself. 


XIV. 

OF  NOBILITY. 


We  will  speak  of  Nobility  first  as  a  portion  of  an 
estate,  then  as  a  condition  of  particular  persons.  A 
monarchy  where  there  is  no  nobility  at  all  is  ever  a 
pure  and  absolute  tyranny,  as  that  of  the  Turks.  For 
.5  pr^tiiiit.y  fi^.tprnpers  Sovereignty,  and  draws  the  eyes  of 
the  people  somewhat  asidia  from  the  line  royal.  But 
for  democracies,  they  need  it  not;  and  they  are  com- 
monly more  quiet,  and  less  subject  to  sedition  than 
where  there  are  stirps  of  nobles.  For  men's  eyes  are 
10  upon  the  business,  and  not  upon   the  persons ;    or,  if 


^       O    r 


■HI1 


-♦•flw^ 


OF  NOBILITY. 


45 


upon  the  persons,  it  is  for  the  business*  sake,  as  fittest,  14 
and  not  for  flags  and  pedigree.     We  see  the  Switzers 
last  well,   notwithstanding   their    diversity  of   religion 
and   of   Cantons;   for   utility   is   their   bond,   and   not 
respects.     The  United  Provinces  of  the  Low  Countries  15 
in   their    government   excel.     For   where   there   is    an 
equality,  the  consultations  are  more  indifferent,  and  the 
payments  and    tributes   more   cheerful.     A   great  and 
potent  nobility  addeth  majesty  to  a  monarch,  but   di- 
minisheth  power,  and  putteth  life  and  spirit  into  the  20 
people,    but   presseth   their  fortune.     It   is  well  when 
nobles  are  not  too  gi-eat  for  sovereignty,  nor  for  justice  ; 
and  yet  maintained  in  that  height,  as  the  insolency  of 
inferiors  may  be  broken  upon  them  before  it  come  on 
too    fast  upon    the   majesty   of   kings.      A    numerous  25 
nobility  causeth  poverty  and  inconvenience  in  a  State ; 
for  it  is  a  surcharge  of  expense  ;  and  besides,  it  being 
of  necessity  that  many  of  the  nobility  fall  in  time  to  be 
weak  in   fortune,  it  maketh  a  kind   of   disproportion 
between  honour  and  means.  ^0 

As  for  nobility  in  particular  persons  :  it  is  a  reverend 
thing  to  see  an  ancient  castle  or  building  not  in  decay, 
or  to  see   a  fair  timber  tree  sound   and  perfect ;  how 
much  more  to  behold  an  ancient  noble  family,  which 
hath  stood  against  the  waves   and   weathers   of   time.  35 
For  new  nobility  is  but  the  act  of  power,  but  ancient 
nobility  is  the  act  of  time.     Those  that  are  first  raised  ^ 
to    nobility    are    commonly    more    virtuous,    but   less 
innocent,  than  their  descendants;  for  there  is  rarely 
any  rising  but  by  a  commixture  of  good  and  evil  arts.  40 
But  it  is  reason  the  memory  of  their  virtues  remain  to 
their  posterity,  and   their   faults  die  with  themselves. 
Nobility  of  birth  commonly  abateth  industry  ;  and  he 
that  is  not  industrious  envieth  him  that  is.     Besides, 
noble   persons  cannot  go   much   higher ;   and   he   that  45 
standeth  at  a  stay  when  others  rise  can  hardly  avoid 
motions   of  envy.     On  the  other   side,  nobibty   extm-     - 
guisheth  the  passive  envy  from  others  towards  them, 
because   they  are  in  possession   of  honour.     Certainly, 
kings  that  have  able  men  of  their   nobility  shall  find  50 


_3i. 


ii^ 


46 


ESSAY  XV, 


OF  SEDITIONS  AND   TROUBLES, 


47 


H  ease  in  employing  them,  and  a  better  slide  into  thoir 
business  ;  tor  people  nutmally  bend  to  them  as  born  in 
some  sort  to  command. 


XV. 

OF  SEDITIONS  AND  TROUBLES. 

Shepherds  of  people  had  need  know  the  calendars  of 
tempests  in  State ;  whicli  are  commonly  greatest  when 
things  grow  to  equality,  as  natural  tempests  are  greatest 
about  the  equinoctia.  And  as  there  are  certain  hollow 
5  blasts  of  wind  and  secret  swellings  of  seas  before  a 
tempest,  so  arc  there  in  States : 

Illc  etiam  cascos  instate  lumuUus 
Ssepe  imnet^  /raiidesque  et  opcrta  tumesccre  hclla. 

Libels  and  licentious  discourses  against  the  State, 
10  when  they  are  frequent  and  open  ;  and  in  like  sort, 
false  news  often  running  up  and  down  to  the  disadvan- 
tage of  the  State,  and  hastily  embniced,  are  amongst  the 
signs  of  troubles.  Virgil,  giving  the  pedigi-eo  of  Fame, 
saith,  she  was  sister  to  the  giants  : 


Iff 


Ulam  terra  parens^  ird  irritata  deorum, 
Extrcmam  {ut  perhihent)  Cceo  Enceladi^ue  sor&rem 
Progenuit. 


As  if  fames  were  the  relics  of  seditions  past.  But  they 
are  no  less  indeed  the  prelmlcs  of  seditions  to  come. 

20  Howsoever,  he  noteth  it  right,  that  seditious  tumults 
and  seditious  fames  differ  no  more  but  as  brother  and 
sister,  masculine  and  feminine  :  especially  if  it  come  to 
that,  that  the  best  actions  of  a  State,  and  the  most 
plausible,  and    which   ought   to  give  greatest  con  ten  t- 

25  ment,  are  taken  in  ill  sense  and  traduced.  For  that 
shows  the  envy  great,  as  Tacitus  saith,  Conflata 
nuigna  invidiay  sen  henCy  seu  male,  gesta  premuut. 
Neither  doth  it  follow  that  because  these  fames  are  a 
sign  of  troubles,  that  the  su])pressing  of  them  with  too 


^  M^ 


•^'fMV 


^  'A'^ 


i 


much  severity  should  be  a  remedy  of  troubles.  For  the  15 
despising  of  them  many  times  checks  them  best ;  and 
the  going  about  to  stop  them  doth  but  make  a  wonder 
long-lived.  Also  that  kind  of  obedience,  which  Tacitus 
speaketh  of,  is  to  be  held  suspected:  Erant  in  officio^ 
sed  tamen  qui  inallent  mandata  imperantium  interpretar%  35 
quam  exequi.  Disputing,  excusing,  cavilling  upon  man- 
dates and  directioDS,  is  a  kind  of  shaking  off  the  yoke, 
and  assay  of  disobedience :  especially  if  in  those  disput- 
ings  they  which  are  for  the  direction  speak  fearfully  and 
tenderly,  and  those  that  are  against  it,  audaciously.  40 

Also,  as  Machiavel  noteth  well,  when  princes,  that 
ought  to  be  common  parents,  make  themselves  as  a  party, 
and  lean  to  a  side,  that  is,  as  a  boat  that  is  overthrown 
by  uneven  weight  on  the  one  side  :  as  was  well  seen  in 
the  time  of  Henri  III.  of  Fi-ance  ;  for,  first  himself  45 
entered  League  for  the  extirpation  of  the  Protestants, 
and,  presently  after,  the  same  League  was  turned  upon 
himself.  For  when  the  authority  of  princes  is  made  but 
an  accessory  to  a  cause,  and  that  there  be  other  bands 
that  tie  faster  than  the  band  of  sovereignty,  kings  begin  50 
to  be  put  almost  out  of  possession. 

Also,  when  discords,  and  quarrels,  and  factions  are 
carried  openly  and  audjiciously,  it  is  a  sign  the  reverence 
of  government  is  lost.     For  the  motions  of  the  greatest  i^ 
persons  m  a  government  ought  to  be  as  the  motions  of  55 
the  planets  under  jmmum  viobile  (according  to  the  old  ^ 
opinion),    which    is,   th:it    every    of   them    is    carried 
swiftly  by  the  highest  motion,  and  softly  in  their  own 
motion.     And,  therefore,  when  great  ones  in  their  own 
particular  motion  move  violently,   and,  as  Tacitus  ex-  60 
presseth  it  well,  liberius  quam  ut  imperantium  memdmS' 
gent,  it  is  a  sign  the  orbs  are  out  of  frame.    For  reverence 
is  that  wherewith  princes  are  girt  from  God,  who  threat- 
eneth  the  dissolving  thereof  :  Solvam  cingula  regum. 

So  when  any  of  the  four  pillars  of  government  are  65 
mainly   shakened,    or   weakened   (which   are    Religion, 
Justice,  Counsel,  and  Treasure),  men  had  need  to  pray 
for  fair  weather.     But  let  us  pass  from  this  part  of 
predictions  (concerning  which,  nevertheless,  more  light  g^-^'-' 


«t»>i- 


■.-■rr-'' 


'^^^J^TfSSi 


48 


ESSAY  XV, 


15  might  he  taken  from  that  which  followeth),  and  let  us 

gpoak    first  of  the  materials   of   seclitions,  then  of  the 

motives  of  them,  and  thirdly  of  the  remedies. 

1.         Concerning  the  Materials  of  seditions.     It  is  a  thing 

well  to  be  considered  :   for  the  surest  way  to  prevent 

75  seditions  (if  the  times  do  bear  it)  is  to  take  away  the 
matter  of  them.  For  if  there  be  fuel  prepared,  it  is 
hard  to  tell  whence  the  spark  shall  come  that  shall  set 
it  on  fire.     The  matter  of  seditions  is  of  two  kinds — 

*    much  poverty,  and  much  discontentment.     It  is  cortiin, 

80  so  many  overthrown  estates,  so  many  votes  for  troubles. 
Lucan  noteth  well  the  state  of  Rome  before  the  civil 
war : 

nine  umra  vorax  rapidnmqiir  in  tempore  fo*niis, 
Hinc  concussa  fuUs,  el  muUis  %Uile  helium* 

85  This  same  vutJtis  utile  helium  is  an  assured  and 
infallible  sign  of  a  State  disposed  to  seditions  and 
troubles.  And  if  this  poverty  and  broken  estate  in  the 
better  sort  be  joined  with  a  want  and  necessity  in  the 
mean  people,  the  danger  is  imminent  and  great.  For 
90  the  rebellions  of  the  belly  are  the  worst.  As  for  discon- 
tentments, they  are  in  the  politic  body  like  to  humours 
in  the  natui'al,  which  are  apt  to  gather  a  preterruitui-al 
heat,  and  to  intlame.  And  let  no  prinee  measure  the 
danger  of  them  by  thi.s,  whether  they  be  just  or  unjust 
95  (for  that  were  to  imagine  people  to  be  too  reasonable  ; 
who  do  often  spurn  at  their  own  good),  nor  yet  by  this, 
whether  the  griefs  whereupon  they  rise  be  in  fact  great 
or  small  ;  for  they  are  the  most  dangerous  discontent* 
ments,  where  the  fear  is  greater  than  the  feeling.     Do- 

100  lemii  modus^  timendi  von  item,  licsides,  in  great  oppi-as- 
sions,  the  same  things  that  provoke  the  patience  do 
withal  mate  the  courage ;  but  in  feixra  it  is  not  so. 
Neither  let  any  prince,  or  State,  be  secure  concerning 
discontentments,  because  they  have  been  often,  or  have 

105  been  long,  and  yet  no  peril  hath  ensued.  For  as  it  is 
true  that  every  vapour  of  fume  doth  not  turn  into  a 
storm,  so  it  is  nevertheless  true  that  storms,  though 
they  blow  over  divers  times,  yet  may  fall  at  last.     And, 


\ 


.'^  M* 


OF  SEDITIONS  AND   TROUBLES. 


4y 


as  the  Spanish  pioverb  noteth  well,  TJie  cord  breaketh  at  15 
the  Ui8t  by  the  weakest  /mil.  110 

The  Causes  and  Motives  of  seditions  are  innovation  in    ^^ 
religion,  taxes,  alteration  of  laws  and  custom.s,  breaking 
of  privileges,  general    oppression,  advancement  of    un- 
worthy persons,  strangers,  dearths,  disbanded  soldiers, 
factions  grown  desperate,  and  whatsoever  in  offending  115 
people  joineth  and  knitteth  them  in  a  common  cause. 

For  the  Kemedies ;  there  may  be  some  general  pre- 
servatives, whereof  we  will  speak  :  as  for  the  just  cure, 
it  must  answer  to  the  particular  disease,  and  so  be  left 
to  counsel  rather  than  rule.  120 

The  first  remedy  or  prevention  is  to  remove,  by  all    , 
means  possible,  that  material  cause  of  sedition  whereof 
we  speak,  which  is  want  and  poverty  in  the  estate.     To 
which  pur|X)se  serveth  the  opening  and  well-balancing  of 
trade;  the  cherishing  of  manufactures;  the  banishing  of  125 
idleness ;  the  repressing  of  waste  and  excess  by  sumptuary 
laws  ;  the  improvement  and  husbanding  of  the  soil ;  the 
regulating  of  prices  of  things  vendible  ;  the  moderating 
of  taxes  and  tributes  ;  and  the  like.     Generally,  it  is  to 
be  foreseen  that  the  {x>pulation  of  a  kingdom  (especially  130 
if  it  be  not  mown  down  by  wars)  do  not  exceed  the  stock 
of  the  kingdom  which  should  maintain  them.     Neither 
is  the  }>opulation  to  be  reckoned  only  by  number.     For 
a  smaller  number,  that  spend  more  and  earn  less,  do 
wear  out  an  estate  sooner  than  a  greater  number  that  135 
live  lower  and  gather  more.    Therefore  the  multiplying  of 
nobility,  and  other  degrees  of  quality,  in  an  over-pro- 
portion to  the  common  people,   doth   speedily  bring   a 
State  to  necessity ;  and  so  doth  likewise  an  over-grown 
clergy ;  for  they  bring  nothing  to  the  stock ;  and  in  like  140 
manner,  when  more  are  bred  scholars  than  preferments 
can  take  o£P. 

It  is  likewise  to  be  remembered,  that,  forasmuch  as 
the  increase  of  any  estate  must  be  upon  the  foreigner 
(for  whatsoever  is  somewhere  gotten  is  somewhere  lost),  145 
there  be  but  three  things  which  one  nation  selleth  unto 
another ;  the  commodity  as  nature  yieldeth  it,  the 
manufacture,  and  the  vecture,  or  carriage.  So  that,  if 
£88.   1—20  B 


■jti 


.''  <' 


si,  ^  ^  *•:■■;*  .- 


•  -»■  ,   -  -f* 


50 


ESSAY  xr. 


OP  SEDITIONS  AND   TROUBLES. 


51 


15  these  iluoo  wheels  go,  wejilth  will  flow  as  in  a  spring 

150  tide.  And  it  couieth  many  times  to  piiss,  that  materiam 
superabU  opus,  that  the  work  and  carriage  is  worth  more 
than  the  material,  and  enricheth  a  State  more ;  as  is 
notably  seen  in  the  Low  Countiymen,  who  have  the  best 
mines  above  ground  in  the  world. 

155  Above  all  things,  good  policy  is  to  be  used,  that  the 
treiisures  and  monies  in  a  State  be  not  gathered  into  few 
hands.  For  otherwise,  a  State  may  have  a  great  stock, 
and  yet  starve ;  and  money  is  like  muck,  not  good  except 
it  be  spread.     This  is  done  chiefly  by  suppressing,  or  at 

160  tlie  least  keeping  a  strait  hand  upon,  the  devouring  trades 
of  usury,  engrossing,  great  pasturages,  and  the  like. 

For  removing  discontentments,  or,  at  least,  the  danger 
of  them  :  there  is  in  every  state  (as  we  kno\^  two 
portions  of   subjects,  the  noblesse  and  the  commonalty. 

165  When  one  of  these  is  discontent,  the  danger  is  not  great: 
for  common  people  are  of  slow  motion,  if  they  be  not 
excited  by  the  greater  sort ;  and  the  greater  sort  are  of 
small  strength,  except  the  multitude  be  apt  and  ready  to 
move  of  themselves.      Then  is  the  danger,   when  the 

170  greater  sort  do  but  wait  for  the  troubling  of  the  waters 
amongst  the  meaner,  that  then  they  may  declare  them- 
selves. The  poets  feign  that  the  rest  of  the  gods  would 
have  bound  Jupiter  ;  which  ho  hearing  of,  by  the  counsel 
of  Pallas  sent  for  Briareus,  with  his  hundred  hand.s,  to 

175  come  in  to  his  aid.  An  emblem,  no  doubt,  to  show  how 
safe  it  is  for  monarchs  to  make  sure  of  the  goodwill  of 
common  people. 

To  give  moderate  liberty  for  griefs  and  discontentraenta 
to  evaporate  (so  it  be  without  too  great  insolency  or 

JISO  bravery)  is  a  safe  way.  For  he  that  turneth  the  htimours 
back,  and  maketh  the  wound  bleed  inwards,  endangereth 
malign  ulcers  and  pernicious  imposthumations. 

The  part  of  Epimetheus  mought  well  become  Prome- 
theus, in  the  case  of  discontentments  ;  for  there  is  not  a 

185  better  provision  against  them.  Epimetheus,  when  griefs 
and  evils  flew  abroad,  at  last  shut  the  lid,  and  kept  hope 
in  the  bottom  of  the  vessel.  Certainly,  the  politic  and 
ai'tificial    nourishing   and    entertaining   of    hopes,   and 


"  m^ 


<\ 


I 

I 


carrying  men  from  hopes  to  hopes,  is  one  of  the  bes(  15 
antidotes  against  the  poison  of  discontentments.     And  it   190 
is  a  certain  sign  of  a  wise  government  and  proceeding, 
when  it  can  hold  men's  hearts  by  hopes,  when  it  cannot 
by  satisfaction  ;  and  when  it  can  handle  things  in  such 
manner,  as  no  evil  shall  appear  so  peremptory,  but  that 
it  hath  some  outlet  of  hope  :  Avhich  is  the  less  hard  to  do,  195 
because  both   particular  persons  and   factions   are  apt 
enough  to  flatter  themselves,  or,  at  least,  to  brave  that 
which  they  believe  not. 

Also  the  foresight  and  prevention,  that  there  be  no 
likely  or  fit  head  whereunto   discontented  persons  may  200 
resort,  and  under  whom  they  may  join,  is  a  known,  but 
an  excellent  point  of  caution.     I  understand  a  fit  head 
to  bei^ne  that  hath  greatness  and  reputation,  trhat  hath 
confidence  with  the  discontented  party,,  and  upon  whom 
they  turn  their  eyes,  and  that  is  thought  discontented  205 
in  his  own  particular  ;  which  kind  of  persons  are  either.: 
to  be  won  and  reconciled  to  the  State,  and  that  in  a  fast 
and  true  manner,  or  to   be  fronted  with  some  other  of 
the  same  party  that  may  oppose  them,  and  so  divide  the 
reputiition.     Generally,  the  dividing  and  breaking  of  all  210 
factions  and  combinations  that  are  adverse  to  the  State, 
and  setting  them  at  distance,  or,  at  least,  distrust  among 
themselves,  is  not  one  of  the  worst  remedies.     For  it  is 
a  desperate  case,  if  those  that  hold  with  the  proceeding 
of  the  State  be  full  of  discord  and  faction,  and  those  that  215 
are  against  it  be  entire  and  united. 

I  have  noted,  that  some  witty  and  sharp  speeches, 
which  have  fallen  from  princes,  have  given  fire  to 
seditions.  Ca?sar  did  himself  infinite  hurt  in  that  speech, 
Sylla  nesdvit  literas,  non  potuit  dictare  :  for  it  did  utterly  220 
cut  off  that  hope  which  men  had  entertained,  that  he 
would  at  one  time  or  other  give  over  his  dictatorship. 
Galba  undid  himself  by  that  speech,  legi  a  se  militem,  non 
emi :  for  it  put  the  soldiers  out  of  hope  of  the  donative. 
Probus,  likewise,  by  that  speech.  Si  vix&ro,  non  opus  erit  225 
cmiplius  Romano  imperio  mUitibus  ;  a  speech  of  great 
despair  for  the  soldiers.  And  many  the  like.  Surely 
princes  had  need,  in  tender  matters  and  ticklish  times, 


'^l^^^^^^^Aii^^^^^^^^^^i^^l^k^^l^siLJbkssi^i^m^S^ 


-jtaJOM^ 


"^'^la^^^ 


52 


ESSAY  XVL 


15  to   beware   wliat   they    say,    especially   in   these   sboi*t 

230  speeches,  which  fly  a])ioad  like  darts,  and  are  thought  to 
he  shot  out  of  their  secret  iuteiitions.  Eor,  afi  for  large 
discourses,  they  are  fliit  things,  and  not  so  much  noted. 

Lastly,  let  princes,  against  all  events,  not  l)e  without 
some   great   person,    one   or   rather   more,   of   military 

235  valour,  near  unto  them,  for  the  repressing  of  seditions  in 
their  beginnings.  For,  without  that,  there  useth  to  be 
more  trepidation  in  court  upon  the  fii'st  breaking  out  of 
trouble  than  were  fit.  And  the  State  runneth  the 
danger   of   that  which   Tacitus  saith — Atque  is  habitus 

240  wuimorum  fuit,  ui  ])es8imum  faci^ius  auderent  pauci, 
pltires  vellent,  oinnes  paleretUur.  But  let  such  military 
persons  be  assured  and  well  reputed  of,  rather  than 
factious  and  popular ;  holding  also  good  correspondence 
with  the  other  great  men  in  the  Stat©  :  or  else  the  remedy 

245  is  worse  than  the  disease. 


XVI. 

OF  ATHEISM. 

I  HAD  rather  believe  all  the  fables  in  the  Legend,  and 
the  Talmud,  and  the  Alcoran,  than  that  this  universal 
frame  is  without  a  mind.  And  therefore  God  never 
wrought  miracles  to  convince  atheism,  because  His 
5  ordinary  works  convince  it.  It  is  true  that  a  little 
)hilo>sophy  inclineth  Ma 
"yi  philosopliy  bnnt^oth  ]\Ian's 
Tor  whil^  thti  mind  of  MaiTn? 
scattered,  it  may  sometimes  rest  in  them,   and  go  no 

10  farther;  but  when  it  beholdeth  the  chain  of  them 
confederate  and  linked  together,  it  must  needs  fly  to 
Providence  and  Deity.  Nay,  even  that  school  which  is 
most  accused  of  atheism,  doth  most  demonstmte  religion ; 
that  is,  the  school  of  Leucippus,  and  Democritus,  and 

15  Epicurus.  For  it  is  a  thousand  times  more  credible  that 
foui*  mutable  elements  and  one  immutable  fifth  ubbeuce, 


to  atlioism  ;  but^jl^ntb 
niindaB^mT  to 

n  second  causes 


OF  JTffEIS3f. 


63 


duly  and  eternally  placed,  need  no  God,  than  that  an  16 
army  of  infinite  small  portions  of  seeds,  unplaced,  should 
have  produced  this  order  and  beauty  without  a  divine 
marshal.  20 

The  Scripture  saith,  77ie  fool  hath  said  in  his  hearty 
there  is  no  God ;  it  is  not  said,  T/ie  fool  hath  thought 
in  his  heart  ;ko  as  he  rather  saith  it  by  rote  to  himself, 
as  that  he  would  have,  than  that  he  can  thoroughly 
believe  it,  or  be  persuaded  of  itj;  for  none  deny  there  is  a  25 
Go<l,  but  those  for  whom  it  maketh  that  there  were  no 
God.  It  appeareth  in  nothing  more,  that  atheism  is 
rather  in  the  lip  than  in  the  heart  of  man,  than  by  this, 
that  atheists  will  ever  bo  talking  of  that  their  opinion, 
as  if  they  fainted  in  it  themselves,  and  would  be  glad  to  30 
be  strengthened  by  the  consent  of  others.  Nay,  more, 
you  shall  have  atheists  strive  to  get  disciples,  as  it  fareth 
with  other  sects.  And,  which  is  most  of  all,  you  shall 
have  of  thera  that  will  sulTer  for  atheism,  and  not  recant: 
whereas,  if  they  did  truly  think  that  there  were  no  such  35 
thing  as  God,  why  should  they  trouble  themselves] 
Epicurus  is  chargetl,  that  he  did  but  dissemble  for  his 
credit's  sake,  when  he  aft'irmed  there  were  Blessed 
Natures,  but  such  as  enjoy  themselves  without  having 
res]>ect  to  the  government  of  the  world.  Wherein  they  40 
say  he  did  temjx)rize,  though  in  secret  he  thought  there 
was  no  God.  But  certainly  he  is  traduced  ;  for  his 
words  are  noble  and  divine  :  Non  deos  vulgi  negare 
profannm  ;  sed  vulgi  oplniones  diis  a^)j)licare  jyrofanum. 
Plato  could  have  said  no  more.  And  although  he  had  45 
the  confidence  to  deny  the  administration,  he  had  not 
the  power  to  deny  the  natura  The  Indians  of  the  West 
have  names  for  their  particular  gods,  though  they  have 
no  name  for  God  (as  if  the  heathens  should  have  had 
the  names  Jupiter,  Apollo,  Mars,  (fee,  but  not  the  word  50 
Dens),  which  shews  that  even  those  barbarous  people 
have  the  notion,  though  they  have  not  the  latitude  and 
extent  of  it.  So  that  against  atheists  the  very  savages 
take  part  with  the  very  subtlest  philosophers.  The  con- 
templative atheist  is  rare :  a  Liagoras,  a  Bion,  a  Lucian  55 
perhaps,  aod  some  others.     And  yet  they  seem  to   be 


*.. 


\y 


;fig&ie'6aih»aaaabi»>---.  j^-iji-i^  .-r-:^^  ;>i'^j 


"uv  itfV^Jr  ■aSiiftiUKgrf'w  «  ^ 


'  ^ .  ..•^iMi:iA-^-  •  lii«i»itf4t\Ai>-  *  j»-A6ff> 


»;^ 


v-f  itJV.!Z*,.^i^;&^Bl^A»tr:ifiss-<itJlitSiSi 


64 


sssA  r  XVI. 


16  more  than  they  are,  for  (hat  all  that  impugn  a  received 
rehgion  or  superstition,  are,  by  the  adversi  j^T 
bmnded   wjth   the   name   of  athe'st«.     But   t^   i^t 

60  atheists  mdeed  are  hypocrites,  which  am  ever  h!„K 

Lt  Sdt  tlSt-H.'  ^-""«'  -  -  ^'^y  --  -^' 

-     The  caus  s  of  atheism  are,  divisions  in  religion    il 

there  be  many  (for  any  one  n.ain  division  addeth  z^i  to 

65  both    s.de.,    but    many    divisions   introduce  athekir 

.   another  IS  scand:.!  of  priests,  when  it  is  come  to  (hat 

winch  «t   Bernard  s.ith,  Non  est  jam  .licere,  ntZuS 

70  do  1.  by  httle  «.ui  IjtHe  .leface  the  i-everence  of  r  di.  on 
Hnd   l;.6tly,    k-a.ned   times,   especially   «i(h   ik^.c"   a  J 
prospenty     for  troubles  and  id,  er.iies  do  .'^ro  Cw 
men's  minds  to  religion. 

•7n     J'"''^  "f.*  ^?"y  "  ^"^  ^^s'roy  Man's  nobility    for 

75  certainly  Man  is  of  kin  tothobe^s  hy  his  Ik  dv  '  a,^ 

If  he  be  not  of  kin  to  UoaTJl—p,,;^^  ^^  ,i^,7  '  *  ° 

^m,b'e  creature      It   dest.iys    le.L   ul^^:^''' 

ftft  t'n      f'         i^";''  '*''"**  **  Ronerosity  and  coura-..  he 

w  i  '',"   r"  "'""'"'  "".''^  '"'"^^-'f  nmintained  by  a^Ln 
«ho  to  him   18  ,ns(oad   of  a   God.   or  ,>,eh\>r,mtura 
which    cmn,,ge    is    manifestly   such   as   that  cre^    "e 
wuhout  that  conndcnce  of  a  b^,(er  nature  than  his  S 
could  never  attain.     So  Man,  when  he  restelh  a'ld  aS^ 
8o  su  elh    lamsolf    upon    divine    p.^tection    and    favo.t^ 
gathereth  a  forco  aud  faith   w'hich   human    .  a(Se    n 
.tself  cou  d  not  ob(ain ;  therefore,  as  athei.mis  in  lu 
resix^cts   hateful,  so  iu  this,   that  it   deS.    human 
^  nature  of  the  means  to  exalt  itself  nbove'h  man  f^X 
90  As  lis  in  particular  persons,  so  it  is  in  nations      NevJr 
was  there  such  a  S(Me  for  magnanimity  as  Rome      Of 

paltes  conscn/,h,  nos  amemus,  tamen  nee  numero    f/i>, 

jxtnos,  nee  robore  GaUos,  nee  eaUidilaU  P<.no^Zlar  Z 

95Gr^eos,  nee   deniq^u  Aoc  ijx,o  hnjus  yenlis  ell^rJd^ 


\ 


OF  surEnsTiTioy. 


55 


pietate,  he  reUqioue,  aUjm  hAc  una  mjnent^A  quod  de-\^ 
\yrum  iinmortaliwn    nmmm   oinma    regi,    (jubeniamue 
perspeximus,  omnes  geiites  iiationesque  svperavimus. 


V 


XVIL 

OF  SUPEKSTITION. 

It  were  better  to  have  no  opinion  of  God  at  all,  than 
such  LTpi'dtn  a«  is  unworthy  of  Him.  Jor^  one  xb 
unbelief,  the  other  is  contumely :  and  ^^^^^^^^'''^^ 
.tition  i;  the  reproach  of  the    Deity      ffj^f^^j^'l    5 
well  to  that  purpose  :  Surely^  saith  he,  /  had  ratnei    a 
;i^JLi  sLld  say  ih.'e  ^oas  no  --/;-;;- J ^  ^^ 
a,  rintarch    than  that  they   should   say  there  was   one 

Seiy'^^glSortld^SieaiV  is  greater  10 
towa  ds   nien.     Atheism   leaves    a  mnn    to    sense,  to 
Slonhy  to  natun.l  piety,  to  laws,  to  reputation  :  all 
S  ch   miy   be   guides  to   an   outward    monU    virtue 
Tl  oughXion  were  not.     But  superstition  dismounts 
Ml  thew    Ld  erecteth  an  absolute   monarchy   m   the  15 

A^i  n!«,  Therefore  atheism  did  never  perturb 
Ctea-trTmakesren  weary  of  themselves,  as  look- 
btates  ,  lor  ij.  inclined  to  atheism, 

tltt«<Uo  P''''^*''=!' ;"  ■'jries  in  the  Council  of  Trent. 
:^erXTocine  Tttthoolmen  bare  g^eat  sw  y 

r?^rr:)i'5rcirre<.. ;.  w.30 


i^-ikL-: lt<&S^.a!a^.afc^'»:aiSfei^*^--'Vv^^^  -  : -^a^'-^^^^'V 


^??^?*fp^^^^^f 


58 


ESSAY  xvur. 


<  \ ' 


OF  TRAVEL, 


67 


.^ 


k 


17  ihiTigg ;  and,  in  like  manner,  that  the  schoolmen  had 
framed  a  number  of  subtle  and  intricate  axioms  and 
theorems  to  save  the  practice  of  the  Church. 

The  causes  of  superstition   are  pleasing  and  sensual 

35  rites  and  ceremonies ;  excess  of  outward  and  pharisaical 
holiness ;  over-great  reverence  of  traditions,  which 
cannot  but  load  the  Church  ;  the  stratagems  of  prelates 
for  then*  own  ambition  and  lucre ;  the  favouring  too 
much   of  good  intentions    which   o^x^neth  the  gate  to 

40  conceits  and  novelties;  the  taking  an  aim  at  divine 
matters  by  human,  which  cannot  but  breed  mixtui-e  of 
imaginations ;  and,  lastly,  barbarous  times,  especially 
joined  with  calamities  and  disiisters. 

Superstition,  without  a  veil,  is  a  deformed  thing  ;  for, 

45  as  it  addeth  deformity  to  an  ape  to  be  so  like  a  man,  so 
A^he  similitude  of  supeistition  to  religion 'makes  it  the 
more  deformed.     And  as  wholesome  mojit  coirupteth  to 
little  worms,  so  good  forms  and  orders  corrupt  into  a 
number  of  petty  observances. 

50  There  is  a  superstition  in  avoiding  superstition,  when 
men  think  to  do  best  if  they  go  farthest  from  the 
superstition  formerly  received ;  therefore  care  would  be 
had  that  (as  it  fareth  in  ill  purgings)  the  good  be  not 
taken  away  with    the  bad,   which    commonly   is   done 

55  when  the  people  is  the  reformer. 


xvin. 

OF  THAVEL. 

Travel,  in  the  younger  sort,  is  a  part  of  education  : 
in  the  elder,  a  part  of  ex})erience.  He  that  travelleth 
into  a  country,  before  he  hath  some  entrance  into  the 
language,  goeth  to  school,  and  not  to  travel.  That 
5  young  men  travel  under  some  tutor,  or  grave  servant,  I 
allow  well ;  so  that  he  be  such  a  one  that  hath  the 
language,  and  hath  been  in  the  country  before ;  where- 
by he  may  be  able  to  tell  them  what  things  are  worthy 


•» 


'i 


rt 


.11 


•I 


.*) 


ifs  be  seen  in  the  country  \<here  they  go,  what  acquaint-  18 
ances  they  are  to  seek,  what  exercises  or  discipline  the  10 
place  yieldeth  ;  for  else  young  men  shall  go  hooded,  and 
look  abroad  little. 

It  is  a  strange  thing  that,  in  sea- voyages,  where  there 
is  nothing  to  be  seen  but  sky  and  sea,  men  should  make 
diaries;  but  in  land-travel,  wherein  so  much  is  to  be  15 
observed,  for  the  most  part  they  omit  it  :  as  if  chance 
were  fitter  to  be  registered  than  observation.  Let 
diaries,  therefore,  be  brought  in  use. 

The  things  to  be  seen  and  observed  are  the  courts  of 
princes,  especially  when  they  give  audience  to  ambassad-  20 
ors ;    the   courts   of   justice,  while  they  sit   and    hear 
causes,  and  so  of  consistories  ecclesiastic  ;  the  churches 
and  monasteries,  with  the  monuments  which  are  therein 
extant ;  the  walls  and  fortifications  of  cities  and  towns, 
and  so  the  havens  and  harbours  ;  antiquities  and  ruins;  25 
libraries,  colleges;  disputations  and  lectures,  where  any 
are ;  shipping  and  navies ;  houses  and  gardens  of  state 
and  pleasure  near  great  cities  ;  armories,  arsenals,  maga- 
zines;   exchanges,    burses,    warehouses;    exercises    of 
horsemanship,  fencing,  training  of  soldiers,  and  the  like  ;  30 
comedies,  such  whereunto  the  better  sort  of  persons  do 
r.sort;   treasuries  of  jewels   and   robes;   cabinets  and 
rarities ;  and,  to  conclude,  whatsoever  is  memorable  in 
the  places  where  they  go  ;  after  all  which,  the  tutor  or 
servants    ought    to    make    diligent    inquiry.     As    for  35 
triumphs,    masks,    feasts,    weddings,    funerals,    capital 
executions,  and  such  shows,  men  need  not  be  put  in 
mind  of  them ;   yet  they  are  not  to  be  neglected.     If 
you  will  have  a  young  man  to  put  his  travel  into  a  little 
room,  and  in  short  time  to  gather  much,  this  you  must  40 
do.     First,  as  was   said,  he  must  have  some  entrance  , 
into  the  language  before  he  goeth.     Then  he  must  have 
such  a  servant,  or  tutor,  as  knoweth  the  country,  as  was  ^ 
likewise  said.     liet  him  carry  with  him  also  some  card,\/ 
or    bcx>k,    describing  the  country  where  he  travelleth,  45 
which  will  be  a  good  key  to  his  inquiry.     Let  him  keep 
also  a  diary.     Let  him  not  stay  long  in  one  city  or  town :  ^ 
fpore  or  less,  as  the  place  deserveth,  but  not  long      Nay, 


fiaifaJiu&iJ 


P 


58 


i:ssAr  XVIII. 


18  when  be  stayeth  in  one  city  or  town,  let  him  chftn<7e  his 
00  lodging  from  one  end  and  part  of  the  town  to  another  ; 
which  is  a  great  adamant  of  acquaintance.     Let  him 
^  se  juester  himself  from  the  company  of  his  countrymen, 
and  diet  in  such  places  where  there  is  good  company  of 
the  nation   where    he   travelleth.     Let  him,    upon   his 
55  removes  from  one  place  to  another,  procure  recommend- 
.  ation  to  some  person  of  quality  residing  in  the  place 
whither  he  removeth,  that   he  may  use  his  favour  in 
those  things  he  desireth  to  see  or  know.     Thus  he  may 
abridge  his  travel  with  much  profit. 
60      As  for  the  acquaintance  which  is  to  be  sought  in  travel, 
that  which  is  most  of  all  profitable  is  acquaintance  with 
I-  the  secretaries  and  employed  men  of  ambassadors.     For 
so,   in  travelling   in   one   country,    he   shall   suck   the 
experience  of  many.     Let  him  also  see  and  visit  eminent 
65  persons  in  all  kinds,  which  are  of  great  name  abrojid, 
Vthat  he  may  be  able  to  tell  how   the  life  agreeth  with 
the  fame.     For  quarrels,  they  are  with  care  and  discre- 
tion to  be  avoided.     They  are  commonly  for  mistresses, 
healths,  place,  and  woi-ds.     And  let  a  man  beware  how 
70  he    keepeth    company   with   choleric   and   quarrelsome 
persons,    for    they    will    engage   him   into  their  own 
quarrels.     When  a  traveller  returneth  home,  let  him 
not  leave  the  countries  where  he  hath  tm veiled  altogether 
behind  him,  but  maintain  a  correspondence  by  letters 
T^with  those  of  his  acquaintance  Avhich  are  of  most  worth. 
And  let  his  travel  appear  rather  in  his  discourse,  than 
in  his  apparel  or  gesture ;  and  in  his  discourse  let  him 
be  rather  advised  in  his  answers,  than  forward  to  tell 
stories :  and  let  it  appear  that  he  doth  not  change  his 
80  country    manners  for  those  of  foreign  parts,  but  only 
prick  in  some  flowers  of  that  he  hath  learned  abroad 
into  the  customs  of  his  own  country. 


I 


i 


OF  EMPIRE. 


50 


XIX. 

OF  EMPIRE. 

It  IS  a  miserable  state  of  mind  to  have  few  things 
to  desire   and    many   things   to   fear ;    and    yet    that 
commonly  is  the  case  with  kings ;   who,   being  at  the 
highest,  want  matter  of  desire,  which  makes  their  minds 
more   languishing;   and  have  many  representations  of    5 
perils  and   shadows,  which  make  their  minds  the  less 
clear.     And  this  is  one  reason  also  of  that  effect  which 
the  Scripture  speaketh  of,  that  the  kiny^s  heart  is  insa^ut- 
ahle ;    for   multitude   of   jealousies,    and    lack  of   some 
predominant  desire,   that  should    marshal    and   put   in  10 
order  all  the  rest,  raaketh  any  man's  heart  hard  to  find 
or  sound.     Hence  it  comes  likewise,  that  princes  many 
times  make  themselves  desires,  and  set  their  hearts  upon 
toys ;    sometimes   upon   a    building ;    sometimes   upon 
erecting  of  an  Order;  sometimes  upon  the  advancing  of  15 
a  person  ;  sometimes  upon  obtaining  excellency  in  some 
art,  or  feat  of  the  hand  :  as  Nero  for  playing  on  the 
harp;    Domitian  for  certainty  of   the   hand   with   the 
arrow  ;  Commodus  for  playing  at  fence  ;  Caracalla  for 
driving  chariots;  and  the  like.     This  seemeth incredible  20 
unto  those  that  know  not  the  principle,  that  tJi^  mind  of 
nutn  is  viwe  cheered  and  refreshed  by  2^'ofting  in  small 
things,  than  by  standing  at  a  stay  in  great.     We  see  also 
that  kings  that  have  been  fortunate  conquei*ors  in  their 
first  years,  it  being  not  possible  for  them  to  go  forward  25 
infinitely,  but  that  they  must  have  some  chock  or  arrest 
in  their  fortunes,  turn  in  their  latter  years  to  be  super- 
stitious and  melancholy  ;  as  did  Alexander  the  Great, 
Dioclesian,  and  in  our  niemoiy  Charles  V. ;  and  others : 
for  he  that  is  used  to  go  forward,  and  tindeth  a  stop,  30 
falleth  out  of  his  own  favour,  and  is  not  the  thing  he 
was. 

To  speak  now  of  the  true  temper  of  empire  :  it  is  a 
tiling  rare  and  hard  to  keep  ;  for  both  temper  and  dis- 
temper consist  of  contraries.     But  it  is  one  thing  to  35 


■  ft'  ,■'  • 


:i* 


'^^'"^^^dti^k:S\i^%  ^• 


.^isii-.. 


=-"••*-.*■' 


=v-4r'v'?^^«^.f^.  Jts«K-*:^^-^'-  ■ 


■-*;r-T'^a! 


CO 


ESS  AT  XJX. 


OF  EMPIRE. 


61 


19  min<-le  contmries,  another  to  interchange  them.     The 
answer  of  Apolloniua  to  Vespisian  is  fall  of  excellent 
instruction.     Vespasian    asked    him,    Wfiat   waa  Nero  s 
overthrow  ?     He  answered,  Nero  could  to-u/^i  and  tune  tlui 
40  harp  well;  hut  in  government  sometimes  he  used  to  uriwl 
the  mm  too  high,  sometimes  to  let  them  down  too  hw.    And 
certain  it  is,  that  nothing  destroyeth  authority  so  much 
as   the   unequal   and    untimely   interchange   of    power 
pressed  too  far,  and  relaxed  too  much. 
45      This  is  true,  that  the  wisdom  of  all  those  latter  time* 
in  princes'  affairs  is  rather  line  deliveries,  and  shiftings 
of  dan^rers  and  mischiefs,  when  they  are  near,  than  solid 
and  grounded  courses  to  keep  them  aloof ;  but  this  is 
but  to  try  masteries  witli  fortune.     And  let  men  beware 
50  how    they  neglect   and    suffer  matter  of  trouble  to  be 
prepare<l.     For  no  man  can  forbi.l    the  spark,  nor  tell 
whence   it     may    come.     The    dittioulties    in    princes 
business  are  many  and  groat,  but  ihe  greatest  dithculty 
is  often  in  their  own  mind.     For  it  is  common  with  the 
y       55  princes   (saith    Tacitus)    to   will    contnuiictories :    Sunt 
jJsrumqne  regnm  voluntatis  veheme^ites,  et  mfer  se  contror 
rix :  for  it  is  the  solecism  of  power  to  think  to  command 
the  end,  and  yet  not  to  endure  the  mean. 

Kin^s  have  to  deal  with  their  neighbours,  their  wives, 
60  their   children,   their  prelates   or   clergy,  their   nobles, 
their  second  nobles  or  gentlemen,  their  merchants,  their 
commons,  and    their  men  of  war;   and  from  all    these 
arise  danger.^,  if  care  and  circumspection  be  not  Ufiod. 
First,  for  their  neighbours  ;  there  can  no  general  rule 
65  1)0  *»iven  (the  occasions  are  so  variable),  save  one  which 
ever  holdoth  ;  which  is,  that  princes  do  keep  due  sentinel 
that    none   of   their   neighlwurs    do   overgrow   so   (by 
increase  of   territory,  by  embracing   of   trade,  by  ap- 
proaches, or  the   like)   as   they   become  more   able  to 
70  annoy  them  than  they  were.     And  this  is  generally  the 
work  of  standing  councils  to  foresee  and  to  hinder  it. 
During  that  triumvirate  of  kings.  King  ITenry  VIII. 
of  England,  Francis  I.,  king  of  Fmnce,  and  Charies  V., 
emperor,  there  was  such  a  watch  kept  that  none  of  the 
75  three  could  win  a  palm  of  ground,  but  tJie  other  two 


mv 


*<  fK^ 


°r| 


J*l 


would  stmightways  balance  it,  either  by  confederation,  19 
or,  if  need  were,  by  a  war,  and  would  not  in  anywise  take 
up  peace  at  interest.     And  the  like  was  done  by  that 
league  (which    Guicciardini  saith    was  the  security  of 
Italy)    made     between    Feidinando,    king    of    Naples,  80 
Loronzius  Medicos,  and   Ludovicus  Sfoiza,   potentates, 
the  one  of  Florence,  the  other  of  Milan.     Neither  is  the 
opinion  of  some  of  the  schoolmen  to  be  received,  that  a 
war  cannot  justly  be  made,  but  upon  a  precedent  injury 
or  provocation.     For  there  is  no  question  but  a  just  fear  85  ^ 
of  an  imminent  danger,  though  there  be  no  blow  given, 
is  a  lawful  cause  of  war. 

For  their  wives ;  there  are  cruel  examples  of  them. 
Livia  is  infanied  for  the  poisoning  of  her  husband ; 
Koxolana,  Jiolyman's  wife,  was  the  destruction  of  that  90 
renowned  prince,  Sultan  Mustapha,  and  otherwise 
troubled  his  house  and  succession ;  Edward  II.  of 
England,  his  queen  had  the  principal  hand  in  the 
deposing  and  murder  of  her  husband.  This  kind  of 
danger  is  then  to  be  feared  chiefly  when  the  wives  have  95 
plots  for  the  i-aising  of  their  own  children,  or  else  that 
they  be  ad vou tresses. 

For  their  children  ;  the  tragedies  likewise  of  dangers 
from  them  have  been  many ;  and  generally  the  entering 
of  the  fathers  into  suspicion  of  their  children  hath  been  100 
ever  unfortunate.  The  de.struction  of  Mustiipha  (that 
we  named  before)  was  fatal  to  Soly man's  line,  as  the 
Buccession  of  the  Turks  from  Solyman  until  this  day  is 
suspected  to  be  untrue,  and  of  strange  blood ;  for  that 
Belymus  II.  was  thought  to  be  supposititious.  The  105 
destruction  of  Crispus,  a  young  prince  of  rare  toward- 
liess,  by  Constantinus  -the  Great,  his  father,  was  in  like 
manner  fatJil  to  his  house,  for  both  Constantinus  and 
Constance,  his  sons,  died  violent  deaths  ;  and  Constan- 
tius,  bis  other  son,  did  little  better;  who  died,  indeed  of  110 
sickness,  but  after  that  Julianus  had  taken  arms  against 
him.  The  destruction  of  Demetrius,  son  to  Philip  II. 
of  Macedon,  turned  upon  the  father,  who  died  of 
repentance.  And  many  like  examples  there  are ;  but 
few  or  none  where  the  fathers  had  good  hy  such  dibtrust :  115 


•« 


"7/?r^;!p.  :^    ■'%gMm^'^^WP 


(t2 


ESSA  r  XIX, 


19  except  it  Were  wliere  the  sons  were  ino[)eti  artns  ag.imsl 
them,  as  waa  Selymus  I.  against  Bajiuet,  and  the  thiotj 
sous  of  Henry  II.  king  of  England. 

For  their  prelates  ;  when  they  nro  proud  and  great, 

120  there  is  also  danger  from  them  ;  as  it  was  in  the  times 
of  Anseluuis  and  Thomas  Beckett,  archbishops  of 
Canterbury,  who,  with  their  crosiers,  did  almost  try  it 
with  the  king's  sword :  and  yet  they  had  to  deal  with 
stout  and  haughty  kings,  William  Rufus,  Henry  I.,  and 

125  Henry  II.  The  danger  is  not  from  that  state,  but 
where  it  hath  a  dependence  of  foreign  authority,  or 
where  the  churchmen  come  in  and  are  elected,  not  by 
the  collation  of  the  king,  or  particular  patrons,  but  by 
the  people. 

130  For  their  nobles  ;  to  keep  them  at  a  distance,  it  is  not 
amiss ;  but  to  depress  them  may  make  a  king  more 
absolute,  but  less  safe,  and  less  able  to  perform  anything 
that  he  desires.  I  have  noted  it  in  my  history  of  King 
Hem-y  VII.  of  England,  who  depressed   his   nobility  ; 

135  whereupon  it  came  to  pass,  that  his  times  were  full  of 
difficulties  and  troubles.  For  the  nobility,  though  they 
continued  loyal  unto  him,  yet  did  they  not  co-operate  with 
him  in  his  business  ;  so  that  in  effect  he  WiUJ  fain  to  do 
all  things  himself. 

140  For  tlieir  second  nobles  ;  there  is  not  much  danger 
fi-om  them,  being  a  boily  disjHjrsed.  They  may  some- 
times discourse  high  ;  but  that  doth  little  hurt.  Besides, 
they  are  a  counterpoise  to  the  high  nobility,  that  they 
grow    not   too   potent.     And,    lastly,    l>eing    the   most 

145  immediate  in  authority  with  the  common  people,  they  do 
best  temper  [>opu]ar  commotions. 

For  their  merchants ;  they  ViV&vemi  ftrn'tay  and  if  they 

flourish  not,  a  kingdom  may  have  good  limbs,  but  will 

-^        have  empty  veins,  and  nourish  little.     Taxes  and  imposts 

150  upon  them  do  seldom  good  to  the  king's  revenue.  For 
that  that  he  wins  in  the  hun<lred  he  loseth  in  the  shire : 
the  particular  rates  being  increased,  but  the  total  bulk 
of  trading  rather  decreased. 

For  their  commons  ;  there  is  little  danger  from  them, 

155  except  it  be  where  they  have  great  and  potent  heads ; 


^■^ 


OF  COUNSEL, 


63 


or  where  you  meddle  with  the  point  of  religion,  or  their  19 
customs,  or  means  of  life. 

For  their  men  of  war;  it  is  a  dangerous  state  where 
they  live  and  remain  in  a  Body,  and  are  used  to  dona- 
tives;  whereof  we  see  examples  in  the  Janizaries,  and  160 
pretorian  bands  of  Rome.  But  trainings  of  men,  and 
arming  them,  in  several  places,  and  under  several 
commanders,  and  without  donatives,  are  things  of 
defence,  and  no  danger.  ^ 

Princes  are  like  to  heavenly  bodies,  which  cause  good  165  ^j^ 
or  evil  times,  and  which  have  much  veneration,  but  no 
rest.  All  precepts  concerning  kings  are  in  effect  com- 
prehendetl  in  those  two  remembrances  :  Memento  quod  ea 
homo,  and  Memento  quod  es  Beus  or  vice  Dei.  The  one 
bridleth  their  power,  and  the  other  their  will.  170 


XX. 

OF  COUNSEL. 

The  greatest  trust  between  man  and  man  is  the  trust 
of  giving  counsel.     For  in  other  confidences  men  commit 
the  parts  of  life,  their  lands,  their  goods,  their  children, 
their  credit,  some  particular  affair  ;  but  to  such  as  they 
make  their  counsellors  they  commit  the  whole  :  by  how    5 
much  the  more  they  are  obliged  to  all  faith  and  integrity 
The  wi.sest  princes  need  not  think  it  any  diminution  to 
their  greatness,  or  derogation  to  their  sufficiency,  to  rely 
uix)n  counsel.     God   himself    is  not  without,  but  hath 
made  it  one  of  the  names  of  His  blessed  Son  :    The  10 
Counsellor.     Solomon  hath  pronounced  that  in  counsel 
is   stability.      Things    will   have   their   first   or   second 
agitation.     If  they  be  not  tossed  upon  the  arguments  of 
counsel,  they  will  be  tossed  upon  the  waves  of  fortune, 
and  be  full  of  inconstancy,  doing  and  undoing,  like  the  15 
reeling  of  a  drunken  man.     Solomon's  son  found  the 
force  of  counsel,  as  his  father  saw  the  necessity  of  it  • 
for   the  beloved   kingdom  of  God  was  first  rent  and 


K« 


f0ff^U?/fM^iSSIAWl00^ 


^^/vry-.  •r'^^m^;'f:-^?-^:^^%f^ 


64 


SSSAY  XX. 


20  broken  by  ill  counsel.     Upon  which  counsel  there  are 

20  set   for  our  instruction   the  two  marks  whereby  bad 

counsel  is  for  ever  best  discerned  ;    that  it  was  young 

"counsel,  for  the  persons,  and   violent  counsel,  for  the 

^  matter.  , 

The  ancient  times  do  set  forth  in   hgure  both  the 

25  incorporation   and   inseparable   conjunction  of   counsel 

with  Kings,  and  the  wise  and  political  use  of  counsel  by 

Kings  :    the  one,  in  that  they  say  Jupiter  did  marry 

Metis,   which   signifieth  counsel,  whereby  tliey  intend 

that  Sovereignty  is  married  to  Counsel ;    the  other  in 

30  that  which  followeth,  which  was  thus :  They  say,  after 

Jupiter  was  married  to  Metis,  she  conceived  by  him,  aud 

was  with  child :    but  Jupiter  suffered  her  not  to  stay 

till   she  brought  forth,  but  ate  her  up;    whereby  he 

became  himself  with  child,  and  was  delivered  of  Pallas 

35  formed  out  of  his  head.  Which  monstrous  fable 
conti\ineth  a  secret  of  empire  how  kings  are  to  make  use 
of  their  counsel  of  state:  that  fii-st,  they  ought  to 
refer  matters  unto  them,  which  is  the  first  begetting  or 
impregnation ;    but  when  they  are  elaborate,  moulded, 

40  and  shaped  in  the  womb  of  their  counsel,  and  giow  ripe 
and  ready  to  be  brought  forth,  that  then  they  suffer  not 
their  counsel  to  go  through  with  the  resolution  and 
direction,  as  if  it  depended  on  them,  but  take  the  matter 
back  into  their  own  hands,  and  make  it  appear  to  the 

45  world  that  the  decrees  and  final  directions  (which, 
because  they  come  forth  with  prudence  and  power,  are 
resembled  to  Pallas  armed)  proceeded  from  themselves, 
and  not  only  from  their  authority,  but  (the  more  to  add 
reputation  to  themselves)  from  then-  head  and  device. 

50  Let  us  now  speak  of  the  inconveniences  of  counsel, 
and  of  the  remedies.  The  inconveniences  that  have 
been  noted  in  calling  and  using  counsel  are  three. 
First,  the  revealing  of  affairs,  whereby  they  become  less 
secret ;    secondly,  the   weakening  of   the  authority    of 

55  princes,  as  if  they  were  less  of  themselves  ;  thirdly,  the 
danger  of  being  unfaithfully  counselled,  and  more  for 
the  good  of  them  that  counsel  than  of  him  that  is 
counselled.     For  which  inconveniences,  the  doctrine  of 


iiiS^MS^ 


r-4H''3-''' 


OF  COUNSEL. 


65 


Italy,  and  practice  of  France,  in  some  kings'  times,  hath  20 
introduced  cabinet  councils,  a  remedy  worse  than  the  60 
disease. 

As  to  secrecy ;  princes  are  not  bound  to  communicate 
all  matters  with  all  counsellors,  but  may  extract  and 
select.     Neither  is  it  necessary  that  he  that  consulteth 
what  he  should  do  should  declare  wliat  he  will  do.     But  65 
let  princes  beware  that  the  unsecreting  of  their  affairs 
comes  not  from  themselves.     And  as  for  cabinet  councils, 
it  may   be   their   motto,    Plenus   rimarum  sum.     One 
futile  person,  that  maketh  it  his  glory  to  tell,  will  do 
more  hurt  than  many  that  know  it  their  duty  to  conceal.  70 
It  is  true  there  be  some  affairs  which  require  extreme 
secrecy,  which  will  hardly  go  beyond  one  or  two  persons 
besides  the  king.     Neither  are  those  counsels  unprosper- 
ous.     For,   besides  the  secrecy,  they  commonly  go  on 
constantly  in  one  spirit  of  direction  without  distraction ;  75 
but  then  it  must  be  a  prudent  king,  such  as  is  able  to 
grind  with  a  hand-mill.     And  those  inward  counsellors 
had  need  also  be  wise  men,  and  especially  true  and 
trusty  to  the  king's  ends  :  as  it  was  with  Henry  VII.  of 
England,  who  in  his  greatest  business  imparted  himself  80 
to  none,  except  it  were  to  Morton  and  Fox. 

For  weakening  of  authority  ;  the  fable  showeth  the 
remedy.  Nay,  the  majesty  of  kinos  is  rather  exalted 
than  diiuinished  when  they  are  in  the  chair  of  counsel  : 
neither  was  there  ever  prince  bereaved  of  his  depend-  85 
encies  by  his  counsel;  except  where  there  hath  been 
either  an  over-greatness  in  one  counsellor,  or  an  over- 
strict  combination  in  divers:  which  are  things  soon 
found  and  holpen. 

For  the  last  inconvenience,  that  men  will  counsel  with  90 
an  eye  to  themselves  :  certainly,  non  inveniet  fidem  super 
terram  is  meant  of  the  nature  of  times,  and*  not  of   all 
particular  persons.     There  be  tliat  are  in  nature  faithful 
and  sincere,  and  plain  and  direct,  not  crafty  and  involved  ',  "^ 
let  princes,  above  all,  draw  to  themselves  such  natures!  95 
Besides,  counsellors  are  not  commonly  so  united  but  that 
one  counsellor  keepeth  sentinel  over  another,  so  that  if 
any  counsel  out  of  faction  or  private  ends,  it  commonly 
fiba.  1—20  a     ^ 


ESSAY  XX, 

aO  comes  to  the  king's  ear.     B..t  the  best   remedy   is   if 
100  princes  know  their  counsellors,  as  well  as  their  coun- 
nellors  know  them : 

PrincipU  est  rirtua  maxima  nofse  >UM. 

And  on  the  other  side,  counsellois  should  not  be  too 
speculative  into  their  sovereign's  jwrson  -The  true  com- 
105  ti>sition  of  a  counsellor  is,  rather  to  be  skilful  in  ns 
master's  business,  than  in  his  nature,  for  then  he  is  like 
to  advise  him,  and  not  to  feed  his  humour.  It.sof  singu- 
lar use  to  princesif  they  take  the  opinions  of  their  council 
both  separately  and  together,  for  private  opinion  is  more 

110  free,  but  opinion  before  others  is  more  reverend.  In 
private,  men  are  more  Wd  in  their  own  humours,  an^,  in 
consort,  men  are  more  obnoxious  to  others  humours. 
Therefore  it  is  good  to  take  both  ;  and  of  the  inferior  sort, 
rather  in  private,  to  preserve  freedom  ;  of  the   greater, 

115  rather  in  consort,  to  preserve  respect.  It  « '"^'""  °'^ 
princes  to  tivke  counsel  concerning  matters,  if  they  t-vke 
no  counsel  likewise  concerning  por.sons.  For  all  matters 
are  as  deid  images  ;  and  the  life  of  the  execution  of  affairs 

v-  resteth  in  the  good  choice  of   persons.     Neither   is   it 

120  enough  to  consult  concerning  persons  gecundujn  genera 
(as  in  an  idea,  or  mathematical  description)  what  the  kind 
and  character  of  the  person  should  be.  lor  the  greatest 
errors  are  committed,  and  the  most  judgment  is  shown 
in  the  choice  of  individuals.     It  was  trulv  said,   0/Xrmt 

n^eonsiliarii  moHui:  Books  will  sj>eak  plain  wlw,x  coxm- 

,ieU<yrs  hhnch.     Therefore  it  is  good  to  be  conversant  in 

''  them,  specially  the  books  of  such  as  themselves  have  been 

actors  upon  the  stage.  ■    .  »      -i- 

The  councils  at  this  day  in  most  places  are  but  familiar 

130  meetings,  when  matters  are  rather  Uvlked  on  than  debated, 

and  th^run  too  swift  to  the  order  or  act  of  counciL 

It  were  better  that,  in  cau.-;es  of   weight,  the   mattei 

,  were  propounded  one  day,  and  not  spoken  to  till  the  next 

day  ;  in  nocte  coruilium.     So  was  it  done  in  the  commis- 

135  sion  of  union  between  England  and  Scotland,  which  was 
ft  grave  and  orderly  assembly.  I  commend  set  days  for 
petitions,  for  both  it  gives  the  suitors  more  certainty  for 


OF  COrXSEL. 


67 


.:l 


'  M^ 


I 


their  attendance,  and  it  frees  the  meeting  for  matters  of  20 
estate,  that  they  may  hoc  agere.    In  choice  of  committees 
for  ripening  bii.siness  for  the  council,  it  is   better  to  140 
choose  indifferent  persons,  than  to  make  an  indifferency 
by  putting  in  those  that  are  strong  on   both    sides.     I 
commend  also  standing  commissions;  as,  for  trade,  for 
treasure,  for  war,    for  suits,   for  some  provinces  /  for 
where  there  be  divers  particular  councils,  and  but  one  145 
council  of  estate  (as  it  is  in  Spain),  they  are,  in  effect,  no 
more  than   standing  commissions,  save  that  they  have 
greater  authority.     Let  such  as  are  to  inform  councils 
out  of  their  particular  professions  (as  lawyers,  seamen, 
mintmen,  and  the  like)  be  first  heard  before  committees*  150     t 
and  then,  as  occasion  serves,  before  the  council.     And 
let  them  not  come  in  multitudes,   or  in  a  tribunitious 
manner ;  for  that  is  to  clamour  councils,  not  to  inform 
them.    A  long  table  and  a  square  table,  or  seats  about  the 
walls,  seem  things  of  form,  but  are  things  of  substance;  155 
for  at  a  long  table,  a  few  at  the   upper   end,  in  effect,' 
sway  all  the  business ;  but  in  the  other  form  there  is 
more  use  of  the  counsellors'  opinions  that  sit  lower.     A 
king,  when  he  presides  in  council,  let  him  beware  how 
he  opens  his  own  inclination  too  much  in  that  which  he  1 60      / 
propoundeth.     For  else  counsellors  will   but   take  the 
wind  of  him,  and  instead  of  giving  free  counsel,  will  sin*' 
him  a  song  of  2^<icebo,  *^ 


-j.»-., 


m"^.! 


^T-f^^fJ?SL 


■y- -,■}:.  f^'i 


NOTES. 


69 


NOTES. 


OP  T<v    "V\ 


I.  jesting:  "  injcst,"or  •'contemptuonslj."  See  Jolinxviii  38. 
However,  Pilate  did  not  speak  in  jest. 

3.  giddiness:  •'instability  of  judgment." 
3.  affecting:  *' aiming  nt."    LaX.  adfcdare, 
5.  sects  :  the  Greek  sophists  and  sceptics,  who  said  that  man's 
Ijolief  w  as  tlie  measure  of  truth. 
C.  discoursing  wits :  "discursive  minds." 
7.  veins:  "habits  of  mind."    Cp.  "  comic  voin." 

II.  imposeth  :  "restrains,"  "  atits  limits  to,"  the  imagination. 

13.  One  of  the  later  schools:  the  satirist  Lucian,  bum  c.  120  A.  D., 
who  wrote  a  satire  called  the  Lover  of  the  Lie, 

14.  at  a  stand  :  "at  a  loss." 

14.  what  should  be  in  it:  "why  it  is." 

17.  But  I  cannot  tell:  "somehow."    19.  triumphs:  "shows." 

20.  stately :  an  adverb. 

27.  as  one  would :  "according  to  fancy.** 

31.  vinum  dsemonum :  "  tlie  wine  of  devils."  Jerome  (420  A. D.) 
calls  it  the  "food  of  devils,"  and  Augustine  of  HipjK)  (dL  430  A.D.) 
the  "  wine  of  error."     IJacon  blends  the  two. 

30.  fathers  :  the  writers  of  the  early  Cliurch,  who.sc  teaching  Wiis 
considered  authoritative. 

35.  howsoever  :  "for  whatever  reason." 

42.  creature  :  "  thing  created." 

45.  of  His  spirit:  subjective  genitive,  "  given  by  his  .spirit,"  i.e. 
the  Holy  Spirit. 

47.  still :  "  ever,"  and  so  throughout  the  Essays. 

48.  The  poet:  Titus  Lucretius  Oarus,  99  45  B.C.,  wrote  a  poem 
called  i\\Qj)e  lurum  Xa/ura,  in  which  he  explained  the  phenomena 
of  the  physical  world  in  accoi-dance  with  the  Epicurean  philosophy. 
The  Epicureans  considered  that  pleasure  was  the  end  of  life, 
therefore  their  nioml  teaching  was  considered  inferior. 

49.  beautified:  "adorned." 

58.  so  .  .   .  that:    " provided  that." 
63.  civil  business :  "  ordinary  intercourse.** 
68.  embaseth :  "debases.** 

72.  Montaigne :  a  French  essayist  of  the  sixteenth  century  ;  he 
quotes  tills  remark  from  Plutarcirs  life  of  Ly.saudcr. 
81.  peal:  "summons."    Ft.  ap^iel. 

68 


v4 


*i 


82.  it  b3ing  foretold :  Luke  xviii.  8.  Bacon  apparently  con- 
sidered that  the  ipiestion  in  the  Go-sjiel  expected  tlio  answer  "  No," 
and  was  therefore  equivalent  to  a  negative  statement.  Most  com- 
mentators regard  it  as  oiK'n.  ' '  Faith,"  however,  in  St.  Luke  means 
the  particular  faith  involved  in  waiting  for  God,  though  He  tarry 


long ;  not  truthfulness. 


IL 


Of     D^«^^ 


8.  friars :  the  mendicant  njonastic  orders  founded  by  St.  Francis 
of  Assisi  and  othei's. 

16.  natural  man :  Seneca,  the  jdiilosopher,  Nero's  tutor  (d.  65 
A.D.),  he  hatl  only  the  light  of  nature  to  guide  him,  not  that  of 
revelation.  Pompa  mortis,  etc.:  "  the  pageantry  of  death  is  more 
terrible  than  death  itself."  Seneca  wrote  ritlifus  ad  inorlcm,  "the 
approach  to  death." 

19.  blacks:  "mourning  dre.ss,"  as  still  in  Scotland. 

22.  mates :   "  overcomes,*'  the  word  used  in  chess. 

27.  preoccupateth  it:  "  forestalls  it,"  i.  e.  by  suicide. 

28.  Otho:  Salvius  Otho  was  Emperor  of  Rome  during  the  early 
months  of  the  year  69  A.D.  When  his  forces  were  defeated  by  the 
army  of  Vitellius  near  Cremona,  he  committed  suicide.  Tacitus 
add.s,  "  Certain  of  the  soMiei-s  killed  themselves  at  his  pyre  out  of 
lovo  for  their  emjwror  and  a  desire  to  imitate  him." 

-9.  tenderest:  "weakest."    31.  niceness:  "fastidiousness.** 
31.  cogita,  etc. :  "consider  how  long  you  have  been  doing  the 

same  thing  ;  readiness  to  die  may  be  the  result  not  of  courage  or 

mis^Ty,  but  also  of  satiety." 

34.  only  upon  a  weariness,  etc.:  "only  from  weariness  at 
having  to  do. 

89.  AugTistus  Caesar:  Empei-or  of  Rome  27  B.C.-14  a.d.,  he 
married  Livia  in  38  b.c.  She  died  29  a.d.,  liftecn  years  after  her 
husband. 

39.  Livia  conjugii  nostri,  etc. :  "  Livia,  while  you  live  forget 
not  our  union,  farewell," 

40.  Tiberius:  Emperor  14-38  a.d. 

41.  Tacitus:  Publius  or  Gains  Cornelius  Tacitus,  55-120  a.d. 
His  chief  works  deal  with  the  history  of  Rome  from  14-t)9  a.d. 

41.  jam  Tiberium  vires,  etc.:  "already  bodily  strength  was 
failing  Tiberius  but  not  duplicity." 

42.  Vespasian:  Emperor  69-79  a.d. 

43.  nt  puto  Deus  fio:  "I  fancy  I  am  becoming  a  god.*'  Roman 
emperors  were  usually  deified  after  death. 

43.  (}alba:  Emperor  in  68  a.d.,  he  was  murdered  by  the 
Proitorian  guard  in  the  interest  of  Otho.     See  above,  1.  28. 

44.  fcri,  si  ex  re  sit,  etc.  :  "Strike,  if  it  be  for  the  good  of 
Rome." 

45.  Septimius  Severus :  Emperor  193-211  a.d.    He  died  at  York. 
45.  adeste,  si  quid  mihi,  etc.:  "be  ready  if  anything  remains 

for  nic  to  do,'* 


lO 


BACON:  ESSAY  III 


NOTES. 


47.  Stoics  :  a  sect  of  philosoplicrs  founded  by  Zeiio,  300  B.C. 
They  considered  the  end  of  life  to  be  virtue,  and  tried  to  attain  it 
by  livin<^  conformably  to  nature,  and  being  indilfereiit  to  ordinary 
pleasures  and  pains.  Strictly  speaking,  tlicy  held  life  and  death  to 
be  things  inditrorent;  but  Bacon  is  thinking  of  Seneca  and  certain 
other  Koman  Stoics,  wliose  deaths  were  somewhat  theatrical. 

49.  Qui  finem  vitse,  etc.  :  *'^Vho  counts  the  final  end  of  life 
among  the  gifts  of  Nature,"  quoted  from  the  works  of  the  satirist 
Juvenal,  a  con  tern  i)orary  of  Tacitus. 

56.  dolours:  "i'^»"s."  57.  Nunc  dimittis :  Luke  ii,  29. 

61.  extinctus  amabitur  idem:  "when  his  light  is  quenched  he 
will  again  be  loved,"  from  Horace. 


III. 


0^    ^^n-f  IN 


2.  contained:  "held  together." 

8.  doctor:  "teacher."  -   „  »     /^       • 

19.  of  all  others  the  greatest :  "the  greatest  of  all,    a  Grtecisni. 

26.  ecce  in  deserto:  "behold,  he  is  in  the  desert,"  Matthew 
xxiv.  26. 

26.  ecce  in  penetralibus :  "behold,  he  is  m  the  secret 
chambers." 

30.  noliteexire:  "  go  not  forth." 

30.  doctor  of  the  Gentiles:  St.  Paul,  see  Acta  xxii.  21,  1  Cor. 
xiv.  23. 

31.  propriety:  "parlieular  nature." 

38.  sit  down  in  the  chair  of  the  scomers:  Ps.  i.  1. 

38.  a  light  thing  to  be  vouched:  "a  trivial  argument  to  call 
in."  The  word  "  vouch,"  Lat.  xocare^  is  used  of  witnesses  as  well  as 
sureties. 

40.  a  master  of  scoffing:  Raln-lais  (1483-1553  A.D.).  His  book 
describing  the  adventures  of  GargJintua,  Pantagrucl,  and  Pniiurge, 
was  an  audacious  satire  on  civil  and  ecclesiastical  government. 

42.  morris  dance:  a  Moorish  dance,  it  was  introduced  into 
England  in  the  time  of  Edward  III.,  and  was  i>oi»ular  in  the  time 

of  Elizabeth.  .       „ 

45.  politics:   "politicians."  52.  treaties:  "treatises.' 

54.  importeth  exceedingly:  "is  exceedingly  important." 

55.  zelants:   "zealots. 

56.  Is  it  peace  :  2  Kings  ix.  18. 

59.  Laodiceans:  Revelations  iii.  14. 
61.  witty:   "ingenious.'* 

65.  cross:     "apparently    contradictory,"    the    metaphor    m 
"league  "  and  "clause"  is  that  of  a  federal  treaty. 

66.  he  that  is  not  with  us,  etc.:  Matthew  xii.  30,  Mark  ix.  40, 
Luke  ix.  50,  xi.  23. 

70.  merely:  "entiady." 

73.  less  partially:  "  with  less  party  spirit." 

75.  small  model:  "limited  design." 


^s- 


71 

He  was  referring 


80.  one  of  the  fathers :  St.  Auijustine  of  Hippo, 
to  the  •'  king  s  daughter,"  Ps.  xlv.  13. 

82.  in  veste,  etc. :  "in  the  garment  let  there  be  divers  colours, 
but  no  rent " 

98.  devita  profanas,  etc.:  "avoid  profane  babblings  and  the 
oppositions  of  knowledge  fabely  so  called."     1  Tim.  vi.  20. 

100.  as  :  "  that,"  here  and  elsewhere. 

104.  implicit:  "  nnqnestioning." 

108.  Nebuchadnezzar's  image :  Dan.  ii.  32. 

112.  muniting:  "defending."     LoX.  munire. 

121.  practice:  "plotting." 

120.  first  table:  sc.  of  the  Commandments;  the  sense  is  **to 
make  our  tluiy  towards  (Jod  come  into  conflict  with  duty  towards 
our  neighbour." 

128.  Lucretius:  see  above,  I.  1.  48. 

129.  Agamemnon:  thf  commander  of  the  Greeks  against  the 
Tiojan.s.  He  sncriticed  his  daughter  Iphigeuia  to  Artemis  to 
priicure  a  favourable  wind. 

131.  Tantum  religio,  etc.:  "to  such  ill  deeds  could  religion 
prompt." 

133.  massacre  in  France:  the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew, 
August  21,  1672,  m  which  60,000  Huguenots  perished. 

134.  Epicure:  "Eiti(urcan." 

1 38.  Anabaptists :  the  word  means  '  *  persons  who  do  not  recognize 
infant  baptism,  and  require  that  lulults  be  rebaptized  before  taking 
the  communion."  Historically  they  became  identified  with  the 
Peasant  Rising  in  Germany,  and  under  Jan  van  Leyden  (the 
Prophet)  established  a  .socialistic  kingdom  called  New  Zion  in 
Miinster  (Westphalia).  They  were  put  down  with  great  severity, 
1535. 

140.  I  will  ascend,  etc. :  Lsaiah  xiv.  12-14.  The  king  of  Babylon 
was  tiiken  to  represent  the  devil. 

141.  personate:  "give  a  character  to,"  i.e.  bring  in. 

153.  Mercury  rod:  the  caduceua  or  rod  with  which  MercUry 
conducted  the  spirits  of  the  dead  to  Hades. 

154.  facts:  "deeds."     la>i. facta. 
157.  would:  "should." 

157.  Ira  hominis :  "the  wrath  of  man  worketh  not  the  righteous- 
ness of  God,"  James  i.  20. 

158.  a  wise  father :  not  as  yet  ideutifiod. 


IV. 


K 


^^ 


Vt  N^C 


1.  wild:  "uncultivated"  or  "uncivilised." 
8.  It  is  the  glory:  Proverbs  xix  11. 
13.  purchase:  "get." 

30.  Cosmus,  Duke  of  Florence:  Cosimo  do'  Medici  was  duke  of 
Florence  1537-1574. 
85.  Shall  we,  etc. :  Job  il  10. 


L  'jSi'^ 


^i; 


-;  ^-^ 


72 


BACON:  ESSAYS   K,  VL 


N0TH8, 


73 


87.  in  a  proportion:  t.c.  taking  into  coii.si<Uiiitioii  that  the 
rehition  betwinn  IVieiuls  is  not  that  botweeu  God  ami  man. 

39.  green:  "uuhcalea."  So  Mrs.  Quickly  toM  Falstatf,  when 
his  head  was  broken,  tliat  prawns  were  not  good  for  a  gieen  wound. 

41.  death  of  Caesar:  all  C.e>ar'8  murderers  came  to  violent 
deatliH  ;  Brutus  ;iud  Cassias,  the  chief  of  them,  both  fell  at  Philippi. 
The  death  of  the  Emi)eror  Pertinax,  193  A. a,  who  was  killed  by 
the  Praitoriau  guards,  was  avenged  by  Ins  successor  Septimius 
Severus.  Friar  Clement,  who  murdered  Htnry  III.,  1589,  was 
publicly  executed.  IWon  only  mean?  that  these  public  revenj,'e8 
turned  "out  well,  for  Henry  IV.  <;aincd  more  by  the  death  of  Heury 
III.  thau  by  the  execution  of  the  murderer. 


V-     Of^   pDvt^^lTY 


1.  Seneca:  sec  above,  II.  1.  16. 
6.  miracles:  Hacou  thinking  in  Latin  pas.ses  from  viirah ilia  to 

miracida.  A  miracle  is  defined  to  be  a  case  where  a  superior 
power  commands  Nature  ;  a  man  wlio  is  master  of  himself  in 
adversity  commands  human  nature,  i.e.  natural  weakness  in  his 
own  person. 

9.  security  :  **  freedom  from  care." 

15.  mystery:  "  secret  intention,"  as  in  Hamlet  **  the  heart  of 
my  mystery." 

19.  lively:   "vividly."    Cp.  "stately  "  above,  I.  1.  20. 

22.  in  a  mean :  "  without  exaggeration." 

32.  distastes:  "disgu.sts." 

35.  lively:  "  bri^dit,"  as  sad  is  "dark." 

39.  incensed:  "burnt." 

40.  discover :  "  reveal  "or  **  biing  to  light." 

2.  asketh :"  requires."  f^n  O     »^  '     ^r* 

5.  Tacitus:  Publius  or  Gains  Cornelius  Tacitus.  See  above, 
II.  I  41. 

6.  sorted:  "  was  matched." 

8.  Mucianus  :  governor  of  Syria  in  69  a.d.  ;  ho  helped  Vespa-sian, 
who  was  in  command  against  the  revolted  Jews,  to  secure  the  empire 
for  him.self. 

9.  Vitellius:  Emperor  69  a.d.     See  II.  1.  28. 

11.  these  properties,  etc. :  '*  these  qualities,  diplomacy  or  policy 
on  the  one  hand,  and  dissimulation  or  closeness  on  the  other,  are 
indeed  ditferent  habits  and  faculties,  and  to  be  distinguished." 

13.  several:  "separate." 

14.  that  ...  as:  "such  .  .  .  that,"  or  "  the  kind  of  ...  " 
"which  .  .  ." 

19.  poorness:  "drawback."  20.  ohtain:  "attain." 

22.  choose  or  vary  in  particulars :  "  choose  his  course  and  adapt 
it  to  particular  circumstances." 


r^ 


.i^> 


iV 


23.  softly:   "slowly." 

86.  without  observation  what  he  is:  i.e.  gives  people 

no  chance  to  ob-serve  or  grasp  what  he  really  is. 

41.  industriously:  "purposely."     lAvi.  dcindudria. 

44.  confessor:  a  priest  who  hears  confessions. 

47.  the  close  air  :  i.e.  the  hot  air  of  a  room.  However  cold,  air 
comes  into  a  hot  room  fi*om  outside,  because  it  is  more  dense  tlian 
the  air  inside,  not  vice  vcrsd. 

50.  in  that  kind  :  "in  that  way,"  i.  c.  like  confessing  priests. 

56,  futile:  "chuttcring." 

57.  vain:  "useless,"  "silly." 

62.  tracts:  "traits." 

63.  by  how  much  it  is  many  times:  "in  as  much  as  it  is 
often." 

69.  keep  an  indifferent  carriage:  "maintain  an  impartial 
attitude." 

70.  both :  t.  e.  openness  and  dissimulation. 
73.  absurd:   "unreasonable."     Lat.  absurdus. 

88.  nre:  from  L;itin  opus  opcris^  via  French  ociivrc — "practice." 

95.  take  a  fall:   "sutler  defeat." 

98.  fair:  "simply,"  as  in  Scotch. 

105.  doth  spoil  the  feathers,  etc.;  "stops  the  feathers  carrying 
the  arrow  direct  to  the  mark." 

107.  conceits:  "conceptions." 

112.  temperature:  "temperament." 

112.  to  have  openness,  etc.  :  "to  have  a  reputation  and  name 
for  openness." 

yjj       ^^  ftVRtNT'-    AMD 

7.  memory:  "  being  remembered." 
15.  kind:  "race." 

15.  work:  i.e.  the  family  tlicy  have  founded, 

16.  creatures:  "created  things." 

17.  The  difference  in  affection,  etc. :  the  sense  is,  apparently, 
parents  make  distinctions  between  their  children  and  frequently 
both  parents  do  not  make  the  same  distinctions. 

22.  respected:  "favoured."  Cp.  the  phrase  "respecter  of 
persons." 

23.  made  wantons:  "spoilt." 

28.  sort:  "consort,"  below,  1.  35,  it  means  "results  in." 
46.  apply  themselves  :  "attend."     Yx.  sappliqitcr. 
49.  affection  :  "  liking,"  sc.  for  a  particular  profession. 
52.  optimum  elige,  etc.  :  "choose  the  best,  habit  will  make  it 
pleasant  and  ca.sy."  _ 

VIII.    ^^    ' 
7.  it  were  great  reason :   "  it  would  be  reasonable  to  suppose." 


UlLDf 


V 


13.  impertinencies :  "  things  not  to  the  purpose, 


*-   —    Xp   *■'  -— ."^ 


t4 


6AC0If:  ^SSAV  fX. 


NOTES. 


76 


14.  bills  of  charges :  "items  of  expenditure." 
17.  because  :  "in  onler  that." 
22.  humorous:  "liable  to  huinoui^,"  "eccentric.'* 
24.  go  near  to  think  :  ** almost  think." 

28.  light:   "  lightly  equippt'd."     Cp.  •Might  troops." 

29.  churchmen:  **ecclt'siastics."  Cp.  Twdjlh  Night,  when  the 
Fool,  who  lives  l»y  the  church,  is  asked  if  he  is  a  churclnnan. 

32.  facile:  ''easily  influenced."  This  dictum  was  illustrated  in 
the  case  of  Bacon  himself. 

31.  hortatives:  ancient  generals  always  encouraged  tlioir  trooi>s 
before  a  biittlc.  Lat.  cohortari.  Caesar  did  not  on)it  to  do  so 
even  when  his  troops  were  surprised.  i.      »• 

45.  vetulamsuam,  etc  :  preferred  **his  old  wife  to  immortality. 
Calypso  ottered  to  make  Ulysses  immortal  if  he  would  stay  with 
her  in  Ot?vgia,  but  he  preferred  to  return  to  Penelope. 

53.  quarrel:  "  lenson,"  i.e.  "cause  of  quarrel,"  and  so  "case.** 

54.  one  of  the  wise  men :  Thales,  one  of  the  seven  sages  of 
Greece. 


IX. 


0^  &NiVY 


1.  aflfections:  "  j>assions,"  "  feelings." 

2.  envy:  an  evil  eye  :  Prov.  xxiii.  6,  .xxviii.  22. 

7.  fascination:    "overlooking,"    i.e.    "hurting    by    malicious 

glances."  ...      mi 

11.  ejaculation:  "  shooting  out"  From  I^Kit.  rjacnlan.  The 
evil  eye  is  still  believed  in  in  Italy  and  the  Kast. 

12.  curious:  "minutely careful."  I>at.  cttra,  "care."  Similarly 
curiosities,  I.  19,  means  "subtleties." 

28.  come  at  even  hand,  etc  :  "  be  even  with  anotlier  by  ruining 

him." 

33.  estate :  "  affairs  ;  "  below  it  means  "government. 

34.  play  pleasure  :  "  the  pleasure  of  a  spectator  at  a  jday." 

38.  non  est  curiosus,  etc. :  "  no  man  is  a  busybody  without  ab^o 
being  ill-natured,"  from  Plautus. 

50?  aflfecting:   "aiming  at." 

50.  Narses:  a  general  of  the  Emi^ror  Justinian  527-563  A. P. 
He  defeated  the  Goths  and  was  made  exarch  of  Italy.  His  rival 
was  the  more  famous  Belisarius. 

51  Agesilaus:  King  of  Sparta  398-360  B.C.  Ho  commanded 
against  the  Persians  in  Asia  Minor,  and  also  served  in  Greece  and 

fiaypt. 

'si.  Tamerlane:  Timour  kne,  i.e.  "Timour  the  lame."  He  wa« 
the  greatest  of  the  Mogul  conquerors,  and  founder  of  the  Mogul 
Empire  in  India 

58.  they  cannot  want  work:  "  tbey  have  always  something  to 

work  upon." 
61.  Adrian:  Hadrian,  Emperor  of  Ilome  117-138  a. d. 
63.  vein:  "inclination."  ^     ^^ 

68.  incurreth  .  .  .  into  the  note:  "  comes  under  the  notice. 


^^*-^ 


4 


-♦  Jk  >■ 


"  w     ^ 


-«'L,' 


41.  P.'-* 


JMh 


94.  per  saltum :  "  by  a  leap. " 

96.  travels:   'Mr.ivailcs,"  "labours." 

102.  quanta  patimur :  "  how  much  we  have  to  bear." 

124.  disavow  fortune:  "  admit  that  fortune  was  wrong."  sc.  in 
favouring  liim. 

130.  lot:  "spell"  or  "charm." 

13:j.  derive :  "divert,"  jtroprrly  of  turning  the  course  of  a  stream. 

141.  ostracism:  it  was  customary  in  Athens  every  year  to  take 
a  vote  of  the  people  with  a  view  to  banishing  any  man  who  seemed 
likely  to  niake  himself  ruler  of  the  city.  If  moro  than  6000  votes 
were  registered  against  any  person,  ho  had  to  leave  the  city  for  ten 
years. 

144.  invidia:  "political  bad  feeling." 

152.  plausible  actions:  "actions  intended  to  win  approval." 

169.  invidia  festos  dies  non  agit:  "envy keeps  no  holiday." 

175.  the  envious  man:  Matthew  xiii.  25. 


X. 


or-       UO  V  t 


I.  beholding:   "indebted." 

4.  Siren:  the  Sirens  were  fabulous  creatures,  half  women,  half 
birds,  who  inhabited  a  rocky  island,  and  lured  sailors  to  distruction 
by  their  singing. 

II.  Marcus  Antonius  :  the  lover  of  Cleopatra.  He  shared  the 
Komaii  Kmpiie  \vitli  Augustus  from  42-31  n.c.  He  was  defeated 
by  Augustus  at  Actium  31  B.C. 

12.  Appius  Claudius:  tho  most  famous  of  the  Ten  Com- 
missioners {(Icccmviri)  appointed  in  451  B.C.  to  draw  up  the  laws 
of  Home,  subsequently  known  as  the  Twelve  Tables.  Falling  in 
love  with  a  girl  called  Virginia,  he  illegally  claimed  her  as  his 
slave.  Her  father  Virginius,  finding  ho  could  not  save  his  daughter 
otherwise,  killed  her  with  his  own  hand. 

18.  Epicurus:  sec  above,  I.  1.  48. 

18.  satis  magnum,  etc. :  "we  are  a  sufTicient  theme  of  contem- 
plation for  each  other,"  i.e.  "  the  proper  study  of  mankind  is  man." 

21.  idol:  "image,"  a  favourite  word  with  Bacon;  it  has  both 
senses  of  the  word  image  here— (1)  the  imago  which  the  eye  forms 
of  its  object,  (2)  the  image  of  a  false  god  which  is  worshipped. 

24.  braves:  "sets  at  nought." 

26.  hyperbole:  "exaggeration  in  expression." 

29.  intelligence:   "an  understanding." 

82.  it  was  well  said :  sc.  by  Plutarch. 

36.  reciproque:  "returned,"  "reciprocal,"  below  it  is  a  noun, 
"return." 

40.  the  poet's  relation,  etc. :  "  the  story  told  by  the  poet  repre- 
sents them  well."  The  story  is  that  of  the  Judgment  of  Paris. 
Paris,  when  called  upon  to  judge  whether  Juno,  Pallas  (Minerva)  or 
Venus  was  fairest,  decided  in  favour  of  Venus,  and  received  as 
reward  Helen,  the  most  beautiful  woman  in  Greece.     He  went 


'ft..      />.  .-O. 


76 


BACON:  ESS  A  Y  XI 


NOTES. 


without  Cquitted)  the  gifts  offered  by  Juno  and  Pallas,  which  weW 
power  and  wisdom. 

50.  keep  quarter:  "keep  within  limits." 

62.  check:  "iutcrfere." 


77 


'^.♦-i 


XI. 


Of  G^^-^h^^^^^^ 


1.  Great  Place:  "  hi«,'h  position." 

2.  fame:  "iciiutation."     \, at. Jama. 

3.  as:  "that." 

11.  cum  non  sis  qui  fueris,  etc. :  "when  you  are  uo  longer  the 
man  you  were,  you  have  no  reason  Tor  desiring  to  live."     Cicero. 
13.  it  were  reason :  "  it  would  be  reasonable," 

15.  shadow:  i.  c.  an  indoor  life. 

16.  still:  "always,"  as  frequently  iu  Shakespeare  and  later. 

29.  Illi  mors  gravis  incubat,  etc. :  "death  is  grievous  to  the 
man  who  dies  well  known  to  all,  but  unknown  to  himself."  Seneca. 
33.  to  can:  "to  be  able." 
38.  vantage:  an  ailjcetivc  qualifying  "ground," 

38.  Merit  and  good  works  is  the  end,  etc.:  "the  end"  is  the 
subject,  "merit  and  good  works"  belong  to  the  predicate. 

39.  conscience:  "consciousness."    lj%t.  amscientia. 

41.  God's  theatre:  "what  God  saw,"  explained  by  the  quotation 
which  follows. 

42.  Et  conversus,  etc.:  "and  God  turned  to  behold  the  works 
which  His  hands  had  made,  and  saw  that  thoy  wci-e  very  good," 
Gen.  i.  31. 

46.  globe:  "('(unjiondium." 

51.  taxing:  "lintliiig  fault  with." 

52.  bravery:  "  disi-lay,"  ♦' ostentation." 

53.  set  it  down  to  thyself:   "  make  it  your  aim." 
65.  Reduce:  "  trace  l»ack."    Lat  rerfitca. 

60.  positive:  "uncompromising." 

61.  express  thyself  well :  "  give  good  reasons." 
64.  de  facto:   "  by  artion."    voice:  "assert." 

68.  execution  of  thy  place:  "  the  discharge  of  your  office." 

72.  facility:  "complaisance." 

^^.  steal  it:  "do  it  by  stealth." 

87.  inward:  "intimate." 

88.  close:  "secret." 

94.  idle  respects:    "groundless  preferences." 

94.  be  without:  sc.  "them." 

95.  To  respect  persons,  etc. :  Proverbs  xxviii.  21. 

97.  A  place  showeth  the  man:  a  Greek  proverb,  apxh  AvSpa 
iflxwaiVj  a.srrihed  to  various  wise  men. 

99.  Omnium  consensu,  etc.:  ''all  men  would  have  held  him  fit 
.to  rule,  had  he  not  nilcd."  Tacitus,  the  historian  of  the  early 
Roman  Empire,  55-118  a.d.  Galba,  Emperor  69  A.D.  Vespasian. 
Emperor  69-79  A.  D.  *^ 


i»?- 


-♦>' 


^^, 


-ff) 


<. 


101.  Solus  imperantium,  etc. :  "  he  was  the  only  emperor  who 
changed  for  the  better." 

103.  manners  and  affection :  "character  and  disposition."  For 
the  use  of  the  words  in  Latin,  cp.  7)iores  ct  affcctio. 

110.  side  a  man's  self:  "  tiike  sides,"  balance  himself;  "bo 
neutral." 

118.  Be  not  too  sensible  or  too  remembering,  etc. :  "  do  not  be 
too  sensitive  about  your  position  or  reniiud  otliers  of  it  too  much  ; " 
or  sensible  may  mean  "conscious."  *     r 

XIL       ^' 

1.  It  is  a  trivial  grammar-school  text:  it  refers  to  the  story 
which  follows ;  trivial^  derived  from  the  Latin  word  trivia,  a 
street-corner,  means  "stale"  or  "trite"  ;  text,  a  "quotation,"  cp. 
text  of  a  sermon. 

2.  Demosthenes:  an  Athenian,  the  most  famous  of  Greek 
oratoi-s,  385-322  B.C.  As  a  statesman  ho  chiefly  employed  his 
poNvers  in  resisting  the  aggressions  of  Philip,  King  of  Macedon. 
This  .story  is  told  by  Cicero.  Demosthenes  had  not  naturally 
cither  the  gifts  of  action  or  utterance,  but  acquired  thein  by  rigor- 
ous practice. 

3.  part:  "quality."    Cp.  "a  man  of  parts." 

14.  wonderful:  used  adverbially.  The  distinction  in  form  be- 
tween rdjcctive  and  adverb  is  not  fundamental,  and  has  ilisappeared 
altogether  in  German. 

22.  popular  states :  states  which  have  a  popular  form  of 
government,  "  democracies." 

26.  mountebanks :  literally  a  person  who  mounts  upon  a  bench, 
so  a  "quack." 

40.  they  will  but  slight  it  over,  etc. :  "  they  will  merely  make 
light  of  It  and  take  a  new  line  without  more  ado." 

49.  in  bashfulness  the  spirits,  etc.  :  Bacon  has  an  elaborate 
theory  of  the  part  ]tlayed  by  the  vital  spirits  in  the  life  of  man. 
Speaking  generally,  they  represent  tlie  inherent  energy  which  makes 
a  man  live  and  act.  C.ises  of  bashfulness,  he  exphuns,  by  suppos- 
ing that  the  vital  spirits  come  and  go  ;  but  when  a  bold  man  is  put 
out  of  countenance,  they  receive  a  sudden  chec^k,  which  leaves  the 
man  ludicrously  heljtless. 

51.  a  stale:  "stalemate."  When  a  player's  king  is  in  such 
a  position  that,  though  not  actually  in  danger,  he  cannot  move 
without  going  into  check,  i.  «.  exposing  him.self  to  capture,  and 
no  other  move  can  be  made  on  the  board,  thegiime  is  considered 

1.  affecting:  sec  note  on  I.  1.  3 ;  IX.  1.  50. 
6,  character:  "characteristic." 

9.  answers:  "corrc.spon<l.s." 

10.  and  admits  of  no  excess:  Aristotle  considered  that  virtues 
were  means  between  two  vices,  the  excess  and  defect  of  the  same 


;  iJrtltr'fcfi^l'^'^^''^'^^^ViMiii^8^^^^ 


iia.aaKiHaK.*<ai^«^2l-akfiJ..-^2jaL' 


..'  ,■  ..»i^ 


>.:;  Xft^-rvfe-h^riafeiB&^jaKifesflfaidfc^ 


iJ.J  ''■*■     .'     Ta.>li.<^U 


"T^^^t^-"^ 


78 


BACON:  ESfJAV  XTV. 


KOTES. 


79 


diRposition  :  e.g.  courage  was  a  mean  between  cowardice  (defect) 
and  rashii.ss  (rxeess).  Christ iaii  theology,  to  a  ceitaiu  extent, 
followed  Aristotle,  but  laid  dowu  that  cerUiin  virtnes,  notably 
charity  (love),  did  not  admit  of  excesa 

10.  but:   ••only." 

19.  Busbechius:  Au^er  Ghislain  de  Biisbec,  1522-1592.  He 
was  ambassador  from  Ferdinand  I.  Emperor  of  Germany  to  the 
Sultan,  and  liv.^d  in  Constantinople  seven  vcars.  lie  wrote  a 
description  of  the  Ottoman  Empire.     He  ascribes  the  particular 

wa,L'f,'i3hness  "  to  a  Venetian  goldsmith. 

25.  doctors:   '•harned  men. 

26.  Nicholas  Machiavel :  Niccolo  Machiavelli,  a  Florentine 
author  and  statesman.  His  most  famous  work  is  '*  The  Prince,"  a 
manual  for  Italian  tyrants  in  the  middle  ages,  studied  in  part 
from  Caesar  Borgia.  The  tone  of  this  treatise,  which  is  politic 
rather  than  moral,  has  won  a  bad  reputation  for  Machiavelli,  which 
he  does  not  by  nny  means  deserve.     Bacon  maligns  him  here. 

32.  take  knowledge  of :  '•notice." 

84.  faces  or  fancies  :  *•  fancies  as  expressed  by  their  faces.  ** 

89.  He  sendeth  rain,  etc.  :  Matthew  v.  45. 

45.  divinity:  "divine  teaching." 

46.  Sell  all  that  thou  hast:  Mark  x.  21. 

64.  right  reason  :   "  a  just  appreciation  of  what  is  light." 

58.  crossness:  '•  perverseness."    frowardness:  •'self-will" 

59.  difficilness:  ♦'intractibility." 

61.  in  season  :  "in  tluir  element." 

62.  are  ever  on  the  loading  part:  ''always  take  the  line  of 
exaggerating  misfortunes. " 

63.  Lazarus  :  Luke  xvi.  20. 

64.  Misanthropi:  "haters  of  mankind." 

67.  Timon:  of  Athens,  a  noted  misanthrope.  Ho  is  reported  to 
have  saul  in  the  Athenian  Assemldy,  that  he  had  a  fig-tree  on 
which  several  Athenians  had  hanged  tliemselves,  and  that  he  wa.<* 
about  to  cut  it  down  with  a  view  to  building.  He  therefore  invited 
any  one  who  wished  to  do  so  to  come  and  hang  himself  at  once. 

69.  politiques:  "  i^olilicians." 

69.  knee-timber:  'Hlic  timber  from  gnarled  or  bent  trees." 

84.  anathema  from  Christ:  "cursed  by  Christ"    Rom.  ix.  3. 

2.  estate:  "state." 

5.  attempers:  •'moderates." 

9.  stirps:  "  families,"  strictly  speaking  it  shonld  be  stirpes  iha 
plural.  ^ 

9.  for  men's  eyes,  etc. :  this  gives  the  reason  why  democracies 
can  dispense  with  a  nobility. 
12.  flags:  "armorial  devices." 
16.  respects:  "consideration  for  rank.** 
16.  United  Provinces:    the  seven  states  of   the  Netherlands 


<-*• 


which  in  1579  revolted  from  Spain.     Holland  was  the  chief,  and 

has  given  its  name  to  all. 

17.  indiflferent:  "  imj>artial." 

21.  presseth:  "depresses." 

23.  as:  "that." 

25.  fast:  "near,"  as  in  the  phrase,  "fast  by." 

27.  surcharge  of  expense  :  '•  unnecessary  expense." 

38.  are  .  .  .    more    virtuous:     "have    higher  qualities,"    or 

more  genius."     Virtue  often  means  "  hidden  power." 

40.  arts:  "practices." 

46.  at  a  stay:  "stationary." 

47.  motions:  "emotions,"  or  "impulses.** 


(I 


50.  of:  "among." 


51.  a  better  slide  into  their  business:  either  slide  is  used 
absolutely  for  smoothness— kind's  will  lind  smoothness  coming  into 
their  business — or  the  sliding  is  done  by  the  kings  who  get  better 
into  their  business  when  able  nobles  smooth  the  way,  and  save 
them  from  friction  by  commanding  the  respect  of  the  lower  clas.ses 
as  mere  ministers  would  not. 


XV.  or-  «.9p\^ion'>  ^^P^ooet^ 


1.  shepherds  of  people :  this  is  Uie  expression  habitually  used 
in  Homer  for  king.s. 

1.  calendars:  the  almanacs,  which  foretold  the  weather,  in 
which  shepherds  were  always  supposed  to  be  more  interested  than 
even  farmers.  One  of  Spenser's  poems  is  entitled  the  Shepherd's 
Calendar. 

7.  ille  etiam,  etc.:  "for  he  {sc.  the  sun)  oftentimes  gives 
warning  of  the  secret  approach  of  mutinous  outbreaks,  and  of  the 
swellings  of  treachery  and  hidden  war  " ;  the  quotation  is  from 

Virgil's  Gcorgiffi. 

13.  Fame:  "Rumour.*'  Lat.  faiim;  it  is  used  in  this  .sense 
throughout  the  es.say. 

15.  illam  terra  parens,  etc.:  Her,  Earth,  her  mother,  provoked 
by  the  wrath  of  Heaven,  brought  forth,  they  say,  her  latest  child, 
a  .sister  to  Coeus  and  Enceladus."  Virgil,  JEneid  iv.  Cceus  and 
Enceladus  were  Titans,  who  seditiously  rose  against  Jupiter. 

23.  that:  "such  a  pass."  24.  plausible:  "praiseworthy." 

26.  envy:  "political  bad  feeling"  ;  Lat.  invidia. 

26.  conflata  invidia,  etc.:  "when  public  hatred  is  aroused  good 
or  l)ad  actions  alike  are  niinous."  Tacitus  wrote,  inviso  semel 
principe:  "  when  an  emperor  is  once  hated,  good  and  bad  actions 
alike  ruin  him,"  referring  to  Galba. 

34.  erant  in  officio,  etc. :  •*  they  held  to  their  allegiance,  but  in 
the  spirit  of  men  who  were  rather  disposed  to  explain  the  commands 
of  their  rulers  than  to  obey  them." 

38.  assay  of :  "  experiment  in." 

89.  for  the  direction:  "  in  favour  of  the  government." 

39.  fearfully  and  tenderly:  "with  caution  and  weakly," 


■J*=a 


■*'    "       *  -•^1^ 


80 


BACON:  ESSAY  XV. 


NOTES, 


81 


w 


41.  Machiavel :  see  above,  XIII.  1.  26. 

43.  that  is  as  :  **  the  result  is  the  same  as  in  the  case  of  .  . 

47.  League :  the  League  of  the  Holv  Trinity  or  Holy  League 
formed  by  the  French  Catholics,  under  the  leadership  of  the  Guises, 
for  the  suppression  of  the  Huguenots.  Henry  III.  joined  it,  but 
lost  80  much  freedom  by  so  doing  that  he  felt  it  necessary  to  have 
the  Duke  of  Guise  assassinated.  The  League  then  turned  against 
him  and  drove  him  out  of  Paris. 

49.  and  that  there  be :  that  is  redundant. 

56.  primum  mobile:  the  name  given  to  the  outside  sphere  in  the 
pre-Copernican  system  of  astronomy.  It  revolved  daily  and  carried 
round  with  it  all  the  other  nine  spheres,  which  contained  the  fixed 
fttars  and  planets.  These  nine  spheres  had  a  leas  rax)id  motion  of 
their  own,  in  the  opposite  direction. 

58.  softly:  "slowly." 

61.  liberius  quam  nt,  etc. :  *'  with  a  freedom  which  proved  that 
they  had  little  respect  for  their  rulers." 

62.  out  of  frame ;  **  out  of  order." 

64.  Solvam  cingula  regum :  **  I  will  loose  the  girdles  of  kings.** 
Cp.  Isaiah  xlv.  1  and  Job  xii.  18. 
66.  mainly :  "  much,"  now  a  provincialism. 

68.  part  of  predictions :  the  genitive  is  appositional,  not  partitive, 
**this  part  which  consists  of  predictions.' 

69.  more :  "  further.** 

75.  if  the  times  do  bear  it :  "  if  the  times  allow  of  it.** 

80.  overthrown  estates :   "ruined  fortunes." 

81.  Lucan:  M.  Aniueus  Lucanus  (39-65  A. p.),  nephew  of 
Seneca  and  Gallio.  He  lived  in  the  reign  of  Nero,  who  became 
jealous  of  his  success  as  a  poet  and  forbade  him  to  publish.  Lucan 
then  entered  into  a  conspiracy  against  Nero,  but  the  plot  was 
betrayed,  and  he  was  compelled  to  commit  suicide.  Lucan  wrote 
an  epic  poem  called  the  Pharsalia,  which  described  the  Civil  War 
between  Ciesar  and  Pompeius  49  and  48  B.C. 

83.  hinc  osura  vorax,  etc.:  "Hence  sprung  devouring  usury 
and  interest  that  hastes  to  the  day  of  payment ;  hence  shaken 
credit,  and  war  become  a  boon  to  many." 

99.  dolendi  modus,  timendi,  etc. :  "there  is  a  limit  to  suflfering, 
but  no  linjit  to  fear." 

102.  mate:  " defeat,*' " checkmate.** 

103.  be  secure:  "  feel  safe,*'  or  "be  careless." 

114.  strangers :  "the  presence  of  foreigners.*'  Bacon  is  probably 
thinking  of  foreign  favourites,  e.g.  the  Provcn<,\ils  in  the  reign  of 
Henry  III.,  and  Jews  and  otlurs  wliosn  rompotitinn  injured 
production. 

124.  well-balancing  of  trade:  Bacon  held  that  exports  should 
exceed  imi)orts,  and  that  so  a  balance  should  be  re  !  in  money. 

This  theorv  was  overthrown  by  Adam  Smith.  jMuurin  Political 
Economy  has  also  discarded  the  belief  that  laws  regulating 
expenditure,  or  artificially  controlling  prices,  are  valuable, 

131.  stock:  "capital."    Cp.  "stocks.'* 


^  -"I 


144.  upon:  "at  the  expense  of." 

145.  whatsoever  is  somewhere  gotten,  etc. :  this  also  does  not 
hold,  or  it  would  not  be  possible  for  the  world  at  lari'e  to  srrow 
richer. 

150.  materiam  sup  srabit  opus:  "  the  work  will  be  more  valuable 
than  the  niateiial." 

15^.  mines  above  ground  :  L  e.  their  manufactures  and  cariying 
trade. 

158.  muck:  "manure.*' 

161.  engrossing:   " monopolising,"  " making  corners.** 

170,  troubling  of  the  waters:  John  v.  4. 

174.  Pallas:  "Minerva."     Briareus:  a  Titan. 

180.  bravery:  "defiance." 

181.  endangereth:  "  incurs  the  danger.** 

182.  imposthumations :   "abscesses." 

183.  The  part  of  Epimetheus,  etc.  :  Prometheus  "forethought" 
and  Epimetheus  "afterthought"  were  two  brothers.  Prometheus 
stole  fire  from  heaven  and  gave  it  to  men,  who  then  learnt  the 
arts,  and  became  more  like  the  gods.  To  be  revenged  the  gods 
made  a  beautiful  woman  called  Pandora  (each  bestowing  a  gift  upon 
her),  and  sent  her  down  to  Epimetheus  with  a  shut  box.  Epimetheus 
opened  it,  and  it  was  full  of  diseases  and  pains  and  troubles,  which 
flew  out  into  the  world.  He  shut  the  lid  too  late  to  stop  their 
escape,  but  managed  to  keep  in  Hope  which  was  at  the  bottom. 

188.  artificial:  "  artful'^  or  "skilful." 

197.  brave:  "])arade." 

20«.  in  his  own  particular :  "  on  his  own  particular  account.*' 

220.  Sylla  nescivit,  etc. :  "Sulla  did  not  know  his  letters,  and 
could  not  dictate."  Both  Sulla  and  Cresar  when  masters  of  Rome 
assumed  the  title  of  "dictitor."  Sulli  after  reorganising  the 
constitution  laid  down  his  office,  Cfesar  did  not. 

223.  legi  a  se militem :  "that  h.  chose  his  soldiers  and  did  not 
buy  them." 

225.  Frobus:  Emperor  of  Rome  276-282  a.d.  He  was  murdered 
by  his  soldiers  at  Sirmium  (Mitrovitza  on  the  Saav). 

225.  si  vixero,  etc.  :  "  if  1  live  Rome  will  not  need  soldiers,'* 

233.  events:  "occasions,"  or  "  emergencies." 

239.  atque  is  habitus,  etc.:  "the  general  state  of  mind  was 
such,  that  whereas  few  cared  to  venture  upon  so  odious  a  crime, 
many  wished  for  it,  and  all  accepted  it."  The  reference  is  to  the 
murder  of  Galba. 

243.  holding  a  good  correspondence  with,  etc. :  "  not  dispro- 
portionately great  when  compared  with  other  members  of  the 
state." 


XVI. 


^f 


t 


1.  Legend:  the  Golden  Legend,  a  volume  containing  biographies 
of  the  saints,  written  by  Jacobus  do  Voragene,  Archbishop  of 
Genoa,  in  the  13tli  century, 

ESS.  1—20  F 


'-A'i 


,:am^^^k 


iiij^ 


82 


BACON:  ESSAY  XVI. 


NOTES. 


83 


2.  Talmud:  a  volume  of  Rabbinical  traditions  written  as 
a  supplement  to  the  Old  Testament.  ,     ,,  ,         .      , .,  i 

2.  Alcoran:  the  Koran  {al  is  the  article),  the  Mahometen  bible. 

4.  convince:  "refute."     Lsit.  eonviiico, 

8.  gecond  causes  ;  the  immediate  or  efncicnt  causes  with  which 
physical  science  is  concerned,  as  opi)Oi>ed  to  God,  the  first  cause. 

14.  Lencippus  and  Democritus:  two  early  Greek  philosophers 
who  started  the  theory  thai  the  physical  workl  was  formed  by  the 
concoui-se  of  atoms  in  a  void.  Their  physical  theory  was  adopted 
by  Epicurus,  who  used  it  as  a  basis  on  which  to  found  his  moral 

philosophy.  ,       .  ^  1  c        * 

16.  four  mutahle  Clements:  sc.  earth,  air,  wator  and  nre  ;  to 
these  was  added  a  tifih  sukstance  or  quintessence,  ether,  of  which 
the  heavenly  bodies  were  comp^seil. 

21.  the  fool  hath  said,  etc. :  Ps.  xiv.  and  liii.  ..,,    ^  .. 

23.  soas  .  .  .  persuaded  of  it:  the  first  a^  stands  for     that, 
and  the  fust  that  for  "  what,"  wliile  the  second  is  causal 

26.  for  whom  it  maketh  :  "  in  whose  interest  it  is.     ^^ 

34.  have  of  them  that:  "  find  men  among  them  who. 

43.  non  deos  vulgi,  etc.:  **it  is  not  profane  to  deny  the 
existence  of  the  gods  in  whom  common  people  believe,  but ^ it  is 
profane  to  attiibute  to  the  gods  what  common  people  believe. 

45.  Plato:  li^cd  in  the  4th  century  B.C.  lie  was  the  greatest 
of  the  Greek  idealists  in  philosophy.  ^ 

54.  contemplative:  "theoretical."  ,    ^  *,  ,     •    n 
55    Diagoras:  a  |>oet  who  came  from  the  island  of  Mtdos  in  t  le 

^crean.     His    atheism   was  so    fain  ms   that    Ari3toidian?8   calls 
Socrates  "the  Melian  "  when  he  wishes  lo  imply  that  he  was  an 

atheist.  ,        ,      .      ...  , 

55  Bion :  a  Scythian  who  studied  philosophy  m  Athens  ami 
became  an  atheist.  He  lived  about  260  B.C.,  and  must  be 
distinfjuished  from  the  pastoral  poet  Bion  of  Smyrna. 

55.  Lucian:  see  I.  1.  13.     His  satires  often  riiliculeU  the  pagan 

67  St  Bernard:  a  famous  mediaival  saint,  who  preached  the 
Second  Crusade  and  founded  the  abbey  of  Clairvanx.     He  lived 

1091-1153  A.D.  ,       c       *i  1 

67.  Non  est  jam  dicere,  etc. :  "  we  may  not  Say,  as^  the  people 
so  the  priest,'  for  the  peoi»le  is  not  so  bad  as  the  priest 

79.  generosity:  **  nobleness." 

80.  maintained:  ''supported." 

81.  melior  natnra :  "  higher  nature.** 
88.  so  in  this  :  "  so  it  is  also  in  this." 

92  quam  volumns.  etc.  :  "  we  may  think  as  well  of  ourselves  aa 
we  please.  Conscript  Fathers,  but  we  have  not  the  numbers  of  the 
Spauiai-ds,  nor  the  bodily  strength  of  the  Gauls,  nor  the  cunning 
of  the  Carthaginians,  nor  the  arts  of  Greece  ;  nay,  wc  are  not  even 
the  enuals  of  our  own  Italians  and  Latins  in  their  auction  for  the 
race  from  which  they  arc  sprung,  and  the  land  which  is  their 
home.    But  in  piety,  in  reverence,  and  in  the  certainty,  which  m 


our  only  wisdom,  that  the  whole  world  is  ruled  and  guided  by  the 
power  of  heaven,  we  are  more  than  a  match  for  any  people  or  nation 
in  the  world."  But  Cicero  is  by  no  means  so  orthodox  in  his 
private  writings.  ^ 

■XVII.     0^   SdPV^  ^c-rnior 

4.  Plutarch:  he  flourished  in  85  A  d  ,  and  besides  the  Lives 
wrote  a  tnalise  on  superstition,  from  which  this  quotation  is 
taken. 

12.  natural  piety:  a  sense  of  duty  to  friends  and  kindled 
implanted  hy  nature. 

14.  dismounts:  "cists  down." 

19.  Augustus    CasBar:    the     foundation     of    the     Empire    by 
Augustus  27  B.C.  brought  peace  and  prosperity  to  Rome,  which, 
as  Bacon  sav'«,  do  not  promote  religion,  or  as  the  Bible  puts  it 
"AN  hen  J-slnirun  waxotl  fat  he  kicked." 

21.  primum  mobile:  see  XV.  1.  56. 

21.  ravisheth:  "carries  awny  with  it." 

24.  are  fitted  to  practice  :  **  used  to  defend  practice,  not  to  guide 

I '  • 

25.  gravely:  "weightily." 

i6.  Council  of  Trent :  the  Council  of  the  Church  held  at  Trent 
in  the  Tyrol  1545-1563  a.d.,  at  the  time  of  the  Reformat  on. 
It  refused  to  come  to  anv  compromise  with  Luther  and  the 
Protestants,  and  by  its  rigid  definition  of  dogma,  and  anathemas 
against  her.tics,  made  the  breach  between  Catholics  and  Pro- 
testants final. 

27.  schoolmen:  mediaeval  philosophers,  who  combined  the 
philosophy  of  Aristotle  and  the  metaphysical  and  ethical  doctrines 
of  Christianity  into  one  system.  See  XIIL  1.  10.  Their  reasoning 
was  wholly  deductive,  and  therefore  became  formal  and  difficult 
to  reconcile  with  new  facts.  Bacon  himself  was  the  first  founder 
of  the  so-called  inductive  reasoning,  which,  although  dogmatic  and 
full  of  fallacies,  was  fruitful,  as  it  attempted  to  take  account  of 
fresh  knowledge.  The  chief  of  the  later  Schoolmen  were— Duns 
Sc.-tus,  Oc  am,  and  the  great  Dominican  doctor,  St.  Thomas  Aquinas. 

29.  eccentrics  and  epicycles:  the  phenomena  (appearances) 
had  by  this  time  made  it  tairly  clear  that  the  earth  was  not  the 
centre  of  the  planetary  system.  The  sun  however  had  to  go  round 
the  earth,  for  in  Joshua  x.  13  the  sun  stood  still  over  Gibeon.  To 
»ive  the  phenomena  it  was  asserted  (1)  that  the  pl;.nets  had  a 
motion  of  their  own  in  circles  (epicycles),  whose  centres  were  on 
the  circumferf^nce  of  the  circles,  which  formed  their  orbits,  as  they 
revolved  round  the  earth,  and  (2)  that  these  latter  circles  were 
eccentrics,  i.e.  the  earth  was  not  accurately  the  centre  of  them. 
Op.  Milton  (quoted  by  West),  Paradise  Lost,  viii.  81-84  : 

•*  How  build,  unbuild,  contrive. 
To  save  ajipearances  ;  how  gird  the  sjhere 
"With  centric  and  eccentric  scribbled  o'er, 
Cycle  and  epicycle,  orb  in  orb." 


'^i^^^^^-.^ ; 


&  !--AA 


^■■^ 


u 


BACON:   ESSAYS  XVIIL,  XIX, 


NOTES. 


85 


34,  sensual:  "  which  a] »i.cal  to  the  souses."  Bacon  tlironghonl 
the  essay  is  aiming  at  the  Roman  Church. 

39.  good  intentions:  stupidity  ami  eccentricity  must  not  be 
given  a  free  hand,  however  sincere  they  may  be,  otlicrAise  fanciful 
beliefs  and  doctrines  may  come  in.  .  v«^f:„„  •• 

40.  taking  an  aim  at :  "  guessing  at,"  collofiuially     shooting. 
11.  mixture  of  imaginations :  the  blending  of  our  conceptions 

as 'to  things  hum:in  and  divine,  which  result  in  false  arguments 

^^ITottld'behad:  '*  should  bo^^taken."   *'lLivea   care"   was 
the  usu:il  expression  for  **take  care." 
53.  fareth:  "hajipens.** 


QX'    Tv^KVv  t 


XVIII. 

6    allow  "approve."   It  is  a  ditfercnt  word  from  allow  =  permit  j 
for  the  one  is  derived  from  Fr.  alloucr,  Lat.  allaxidarc,  ''  to  praise, 
and  the  other  from  Fr.  aUouer,  Lat.  allocare,  "  to  assign. 

10.  exercises  or  discipline:  '' training  or  leannng.  ^^ 

11.  hooded:   "  blindfolded  " ;  tlie  metaphor  is  from     hawking. 
15.  diaries:  the  reference  is  to  the  ship's  log. 

17.  observation:    things    which   the  ti-aveller  express  y   came 

^2^2. ^'consistories  ecclesiastic:   "ecclesiastical  assemblies."  ^^ 

51.  adamant:  usually  "hard  metal,"  but  here  the  "loadstone 

or  "maijiict."  „ 

63.  diet:  "  take  his  meals,"  "board. 

62.  employed  men:  ^' atlachlt." 

69  healths:  ''toasts."  A  frequent  source  of  nnarrel  was  the 
reftisal  on  the  part  of  one  member  of  a  company  to  drmk  the  health 
of  some  lady  or  eminent  person,  who  was  distasteful  to  lum. 

69.  place:  "precedence."  „ 

80.  his  country  manners :  "the  customs  of  his  own  country. 

81.  prick  in  :  "  plant  in,"  or  possibly  "engraft.' 

Empire :  '*  rnle,"  or  "  government."     Lat.  imperlurru  ^^ 

4.  want  matter  of  desire  :  "  Jiave  no  objects  oi  desire. 

5.  representations:  "ideas." 

8.  the  king's  heart,  etc. :  Proverbs  xxv.  3. 

14.  toys:  "trilles."  tt    •     •  i  j    «    i.^™ 

17  Nero  •  Emperor  of  Rome  54-68.  a.d.  He  insisted  on  show- 
ing  off  his  skill  as  a  harpist  and  charioteer  at  the  Games,  and 
caused  great  scandal.  It  was  also  said  that  he  played  the  harp 
during  the  great  fire  in  Rome  64  a  D. 

18.  Domitian:  Emperor  of  Rome  81-96  A.D.        ' 

19.  Commodus:  son  of  Marcus  Aurelius.  From  his  accession 
to  the  position   of  Roman   Emperor,    Gibbon   dates   the  decline 


XIX. 


0 


J 


•V 


of  the  Roman  Empire.     He  reigned  180-192  A.D.,  and  emulated 
Nero  by  taking  part  as  a  gladiator  in  the  Games. 

19.  play  :  the  usual  word  for  fencing,  so  used  in  the  last  act  of 
Hamh:t 

19.  Caracalla:  Emperor  of  Rome  211-217  a.d.  He  was  the 
son  of  Septimius  Severus,  and  was  properly  called  Bassianus,  but 
is  known  by  a  nickname  derived  from  the  Gallic  tunic  which  he 
wore.  In  his  crimes,  the  chief  of  which  was  the  murder  of  his 
brother  Geta,  and  in  his  love  of  the  circus  he  resembled  Nero 
and  Commodus.  His  name  is  associated  with  the  famous  baths 
in  Rome,  and  it  was  in  his  reign  that  all  fieeboni  subjects  of 
the  Empire  received  Roman  citizenship. 

25.  Alexander  the  Great:  he  is  said  by  Plutarch  to  have 
wept  because  tliere  were  no  more  worlds  to  conquer. 

29.  Dioclesian  :  Emperof  of  Rome  284-305  a.d.  His  successes 
against  the  barbarians  served  to  stay  the  downfall  of  the  Empire. 
He  spent  the  last  seven  years  of  his  life  in  retirement,  and  died 
in  312  A.D. 

29.  Charles  V.  :  born  1500  a.d.  died  1558,  king  of  Spain, 
Naples,  Sicily,  and  the  Netherlands,  and  Emperor  cif  Germany. 
His  life  was  spent  in  fighting  with  the  Protestant  princes  of 
Germany  and  Francis  I.  of  France.  His  most  brilliant  success 
was  the  defeat  and  capture  of  Francis  near  the  Carthusian 
monastery,  between  Milan  and  Pavia.  He  retired  in  favour  of 
his  son  in  1556,  and  .spent  the  hist  two  years  of  his  life  in  a 
convent  in  Spain,  hearing  masses  for  his  soul  as  though  already 
dead. 

33.  temper  of  empire :  "the  blending  of  qualities  and  methods 
necessary  for  successful  ruling." 

37.  Apollonius:  of  Tyana  in  Cappadocia,  b.  B.C.  4,  half  Pytha- 
gorean philosopher,  half  nxagician.  This  story  comes  from  his  life 
written  by  Philostratus  182  A.D. 

46.  fine  deliveries:  "skilful  devices  for  getting  out  of  diffi- 
culties." 

49.  try  masteries  with:  "  provoke  a  conflict  with." 

65.  sunt  plerumque,  etc.:  "the  wills  of  kings  are  for  the 
most  part  violent  and  self-contradictory."  The  quotation  is  from 
Sal  lust's  t/it^wr/A«,  113  ;  not  from  Tacitus.  The  Latin  is.  Sod  pler- 
umque rcgice  volantatcs  ut  vchementes^  sic  vwhUcs  ct  stepe  ipsce 
sibi  Oliver soE. 

57.  solecism:  "mistake."  The  word  was  used  primarily  of 
mistakes  in  grammar,  such  as  were  made  by  the  inhabiiauts  of 
Soli  in  Asia  Minor,  who  spoke  bad  Greek. 

68.  approaches:  "attracting  trade." 

76.  palm:  "  hand's-breadth." 

77.  take  up  peace  at  interest:  "take  np"  =  boiTow,  and  the 
meaning  is  to  make  peace,  which,  like  money  boncwcd  at  high 
interest,  would  cost  dear  in  the  end. 

79.  Guicciardini :  1482-1540  a.d.,  a  famous  Florentine  his- 
torian. 


86 


BACON:  ESSAY  XIX. 


NOTES, 


87 


80.  Ferdinando  of  Naples:  1458-1482  a.d.  Ho  was  maiuly 
occupioJ  with  the  internal  troubles  caused  by  his  cnieltiea. 

81.  Lorenzins  Medices :  Lorenzo  de'  Medici,  1448-1492,  tyrant 
of  Florence.  He  was  surnauied  the  Ma;;inficcnt,  and  was  famous 
as  a  patron  of  art  and  Ifttei-s.  After  a  war  with  Ferilinand  of 
Kaples  he  made  p.  ace  in  1480. 

81.  Ladovicus  Sforza:  1451-1510  a.d.  He  was  suniamed  il 
M(yrOj  "  the  Moor,"  because  of  his  complexion.  His  family,  which 
was  of  low  origin,  succeeded  the  Visconti  as  tyrants  of  Milan. 
The  alliance  mentioned  here  was  directed  piimaiily  against 
Venice. 

89.  Livia :  probably  not  the  same  who  received  the  dying 
compliment  ot  Augustus,  although  she  was  in  some  quarters 
supposed  to  have  muidt-red  her  husband  in  tlie  interest  of  her 
son  Tibeiius,  but  her  granddaughter  Livilla  who  married  Drusus, 
son  of  Tiberius.  She  was  seduced  by  Sejanus,  the  ambitious  prefect 
of  the  Prajtorian  guard,  and  took  otf  her  husband  by  poison  to 
aid  Sejanus  in  his  designs  upon  the  succession, 

89.  infimed:  "infamous." 

90.  Eoxolana :  a  Russian  girl  who  was  mairied  by  Solyman  the 
Magnitircnt,  the  gi-eatest  of  the  Oitomon  en)peroi"s.  She  (om- 
passed  the  destruction  of  Mustaplsa,  Solymau's  son  by  another 
wife,  to  secure  the  succession  for  lier  own  children. 

93.  his  queen:  Is.nbella,  the  "she  wolf"  of  France,  7/isby  false 
deiivation  for  the  '»  of  the  possessive  case. 

96.  that  they  be  advoutresses :  "when  they  are  adulteresses," 
the  reference  being  to  Livilla  and  Isabella. 

98.  of:  "due  to." 

105.  Selymus  II;  Selim,  son  of  Roxo!ana.  He  was  defeated  by 
Don  John  of  Austria  and  the  Venetians  in  a  seafight  olf  Lepanto 
1571  A.D. 

106.  Crispus:  Flavius  Julius  Crispus,  eldest  son  of  Constintine 
the  Great.  He  distinguished  himself  in  the  campaigns  against 
the  Franks,  but  was  put  to  death  at  the  instigation  of  Iiis  step- 
mother Fausta  326  a.d.  On  the  death  of  Cor  *>-tine  his  three 
sons  by  Fausta,  Constantine,  Constantius,  nnd  L  ..  ais,  succeeded 
him.  Constantine,  the  eldest,  who  received  Gaul,  Biitain,  ami  Spain, 
made  war  upon  Coistans  and  fell  in  battle  at  Aquileja  near 
Venice.  Constans  received  Italy,  Ulyricum,  and  Africa  ;  he 
defeated  his  brother,  but  was  murdered  by  his  own  troops. 
Constantius  was  originally  only  Kmperor  of  the  East,  but  had 
secured  control  of  all  his  father  s  dominions  by  360,  when  Julian 
the  Apostate  was  proclaimed  Emperor  by  the  soldiers  at  Paris. 

112.  Demetrius  :  son  of  Philij)  V.,  King  of  Macedonia  220-179 
B.C.,  whom  Bacon  calls  Philip  II.  His  father  put  him  to  death 
at  the  instigation  of  Perseus,  another  of  his  sons,  on  a  charge 
of  treasonable  intrigues  with  the  Romans. 

117.  Selymus  I:  dethroned  his  father,  the  Sultan  Bajazet  IL 
1512  A.D. 

117.  three  sons:  Richard  Coear-de-Lion,  Geoffrey,  and  Joha 


X 


125.  state:  "class." 

126.  hath  a  dependence  of:  "  can  look  for  support  to." 

126.  foreign  authority,  sc.  the  Pope,  backed  upon  occasion  by 
the  King  of  France. 

128.  collation:  "consent." 

133.  my  history:  written  just  after  Bacon's  retirement  from 
public  life,  and  corrected  by  Janice  I.  The  following  passage 
<»'?curs  towards  the  close  of  it:  "He  kept  a  straight  hand  on  the 
nobility,  and  chose  rather  to  advance  clergyuien  and  lawyers, 
which  were  more  obsequious  to  him,  but  had  less  interest  in  the 
people  :  which  made  for  his  absoluteness  but  not  for  his  safety." 

140.  second:  "inferior." 

142.  discourse  high  :  "  talk  big." 

147.  vena  porta:  the  large  vein  which  conveys  blood  to  the 
liver. 

149.  nourish  little  :  "  get  little  nourishment." 

151.  hundred:  a  .'>ub-di vision  of  the  shire,  called  in  Yorkshire 
wapentake  ;  it  may  in  the  first  instance  have  consisted  ot  a  hundred 
settlements,  or  have  provided  a  hundred  men  to  the  shire  army. 

158.  men  of  war:  "soldiers." 

160.  Janizaries:  the  bodyguard  of  the  Sultan. 

161.  pretorian  bands,  the  bodyguard  of  the  K  man  emperors. 
165.  good  or  evil  times :    astrologers   sup;>03ed   that  history, 

public  and  personal,  was  influenced  by  the  plau'Jts. 

169.  memento  quod,  etc.:  "remember  that  \.\o\\  art  a  man, 
remember  that  thou  art  God,*'  or  "in  place  of  God." 

XX.    OF       C-OUN    ^*= 

6.  obliged:  "bound." 
11.  Counsellor:  Isaiah  ix.  6. 
11.  in  counsel  is  stability:  Proverbs  xx.  18. 
13.  agitation:  the  Latin  word  agitarc  means  both  "to  toss" 
and  "to  discuss," 

15.  fall  of  inconstancy,  etc. :  "full  of  inconsistency,  first  done 
and  then  undone." 

16.  Solomon's  son:  Relioboam,  who  forsook  the  counsel  of  the 
old  men  and  followed  the  violent  counsel  of  they)ung  men,  where- 
by he  lost  control  of  the  northern  tribes.     1  Kings  xii. 

28.  intend:  "  mean." 

39.  elaborate:  "elaborated." 

42.  resolution:  "decision." 

55.  less  of  themselves  :  "less  able  themselves." 

58.  doctrine:  "teaching." 

60.  cabinet  councils:  "private  meetings  of  special  advisers," 
such  as  were  held  by  Louis  XI. 

68.  plenas  rimarum  sum :   "  I  am  full  of  chinks."     Terence. 

69.  futUe:   "talkative." 

72.  which  will  hardly  .  .  .  persons:  "which  can  scarcely 
be  confided  to  more  than  one  or  two  persons  with  safety." 


W^^^^f^*^'^^^:^^^^ 


88 


BACON:   ESSAY  XX. 


77.  grind  with  a  hand-mill :  "be  independent  of  the  machinery 
of  govennneut. " 

81.  Morton:  Archbishop  of  Canterbuiy.  He  had  been  in  the 
service  of  Henry  VII.  before  his  accession. 

81.  Fox:  Bishop  of  Winchester,  the  i)atron  of  Wolsey,  and 
founder  of  Corpus  Christi  College,  Oxford. 

88.  divers:  "several." 

89.  holpen:  "set  right.** 

91.  non  inveniet,  etc.:  "he  shall  not  find  faith  upon  the 
earth."     Cp.  I.  1.  82. 

98.  out  of  faction:  "from  party  motives." 

102.  principis  est  virtus,  etc. :  "  it  is  the  excellence  of  an  emperor 
to  know  his  advisers."    'Martial. 

104.  speculative:    "iu<pu.sitive." 

104.  person:  "character."    l,d.t.  per smia. 

104    composition:  "quality.** 

106.  nature:  "disposition." 

112.   obnoxious  to  :   "at  the  meroy  of."     Lat.  ohrwxius. 

118.  life  of  the  execution  of  affairs:  "the  first  condition  of 
eflicifHcyin  administration." 

120.  secundum  genera :  "according  to  kinds." 

124.  optimi  con&iliarti  mortui :  "  the  best  counsellors  are  dead." 

126.  blanch:  "  Hiuch." 

131.  to:  "upon."    ^ 

134.  in  nocte  consilium:  "  counsel  comes  by  night."  Cp.  "sleep 
on  it." 

134.  the  commission:  sat  Nov.  1604. 

139.  hoc  agere:  lit. "to  do  this,"  i.e.  "  to  keep  to  the  matter  in 
hand." 

144.  provinces:  "departments." 

152.  tribunitious :  like  the  Roman  tribunes  of  the  plebeians, 
wlio  bad  the  reputation  of  noisy  demagogues. 

153.  clamour  councils  :  "  deafen  councils  with  noise."  ^ 

161.  take  the  wind  of  him:  the  simplest  explanation  is  '*  pick 
up  from  him  which  way  the  wind  blows."  Cp.  Shakespeare,  King 
Lear,  "An  thou  canst  not  smile  as  the  wind  sits,  thou'lt  catch 
cold  shortly." 

163.  gong  of  placebo :  Ps.  cxvi.  in  the  Latin  begins  with  the  word 
rlnceho,''  I  will  please."  The  psalm  was  used  in  the  service  for  the 
J  iJ,  and  so  familiar.  Thus  "sing  placebo"  cmw^  to  mean, "be 
obsequious."  Cp.  Cbaucer  (quoted  by  West),"  Flatterers  been  the 
develes  chapelyns  that  siiigcn  Q.y  placebo." 


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